Shopify Admin Gift Card Issuance

Purpose

Issues Shopify native gift cards to customers programmatically — as goodwill for a delayed shipment, as store credit instead of a cash refund, or as a loyalty reward. Uses Shopify's built-in gift card system; no 3rd-party app required. Gift cards issued here are redeemable at checkout exactly like manual gift cards. Note: giftCardCreate is available on all Shopify plans but may require the store to have gift cards enabled in settings.

Prerequisites

• shopify auth login --store <domain>
• API scopes: read_customers, write_gift_cards
• Gift cards must be enabled in Shopify admin → Settings → Gift cards

Parameters

*One of customer_email or customer_id is required.

Safety

⚠️ Step 2 executes giftCardCreate which issues real monetary value against your store. Gift cards cannot be deleted once created — they can only be disabled. Run with dry_run: true to confirm the customer, amount, and expiry before committing. Verify the amount carefully — issued value is immediately redeemable at checkout.

Workflow Steps

1. OPERATION: customer — query Inputs: Look up by customer_email (using customers search) or directly by customer_id Expected output: Customer id, firstName, lastName, email; confirm customer exists before issuing

2. OPERATION: giftCardCreate — mutation Inputs: input.initialValue, input.customerId, input.expiresOn (optional), input.note (reason) Expected output: giftCard.id, giftCard.code, giftCard.balance, giftCard.expiresOn, userErrors

GraphQL Operations

# customer:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query CustomerByEmail($query: String!) {
  customers(first: 1, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        firstName
        lastName
        defaultEmailAddress {
          emailAddress
        }
        tags
      }
    }
  }
}

# giftCardCreate:mutation — validated against api_version 2025-01
mutation GiftCardCreate($input: GiftCardCreateInput!) {
  giftCardCreate(input: $input) {
    giftCard {
      id
      code
      balance {
        amount
        currencyCode
      }
      expiresOn
      note
      customer {
        id
      }
    }
    userErrors {
      field
      message
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: gift-card-issuance                   ║
║  Store: <store domain>                       ║
║  Started: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC>             ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝

After each step, emit:

[N/TOTAL] <QUERY|MUTATION>  <OperationName>
          → Params: <brief summary of key inputs>
          → Result: <count or outcome>

If dry_run: true, prefix every mutation step with [DRY RUN] and do not execute it.

On completion, emit:

For format: human (default):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
OUTCOME SUMMARY
  Customer:        <name> (<email>)
  Gift card code:  <code>
  Amount:          <amount> <currency>
  Expires:         <date or "Does not expire">
  Errors:          0
  Output:          none
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "gift-card-issuance",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "started_at": "<ISO8601>",
  "completed_at": "<ISO8601>",
  "dry_run": false,
  "steps": [
    { "step": 1, "operation": "CustomerByEmail", "type": "query", "params_summary": "email <email>", "result_summary": "customer <id>", "skipped": false },
    { "step": 2, "operation": "GiftCardCreate", "type": "mutation", "params_summary": "amount <amount>, customer <id>", "result_summary": "gift card <code>", "skipped": false }
  ],
  "outcome": {
    "customer_id": "<id>",
    "customer_email": "<email>",
    "gift_card_id": "<id>",
    "gift_card_code": "<code>",
    "amount": "<amount>",
    "currency": "<currency>",
    "expires_on": "<date or null>",
    "errors": 0,
    "output_file": null
  }
}

Output Format

No CSV. The session summary reports the gift card code and amount inline. The support agent copies the code to share with the customer.

Gift card issued:
  Customer:  Jane Smith (jane@example.com)
  Code:      ABCD-EFGH-IJKL-MNOP
  Value:     $25.00 USD
  Expires:   2026-12-31 (or "Does not expire")
  Note:      Goodwill: delayed shipment #1042

Error Handling

Best Practices

1. Always run dry_run: true to confirm customer lookup succeeds and amount is correct before issuing.
2. Always include a reason note — it appears in the gift card record and helps your team audit issuances later.
3. Set tag_customer: goodwill-issued to track which customers have received goodwill gift cards — combine with loyalty-segment-export to monitor their subsequent purchase behavior.
4. Use expires_on for promotional gift cards (e.g., holiday campaigns) to create urgency; omit for goodwill issuances so the customer feels the gesture is genuine.
5. For batch issuances (e.g., a service outage affecting 100 customers), loop through a customer list using format: json to capture each gift card code for your records.