Understanding Saleor Domain

Saleor Domain Expert

Overview

Deep domain knowledge about the Saleor e-commerce platform and the Configurator's business logic for entity management, configuration, deployment, and synchronization.

When to Use

• Implementing new entity types or features
• Understanding entity identification patterns (slug vs name)
• Working with deployment pipeline stages
• Debugging configuration synchronization issues
• Understanding business rules and constraints

Quick Reference

Core Concepts

A "commerce as code" CLI tool for declarative configuration management of Saleor e-commerce platforms:

• Single source of truth for store state (YAML in git)
• Version-controlled, reproducible deployments
• Declarative over imperative management

Entity Identification System

Critical Rule: Every entity has exactly ONE identification strategy.

Slug-Based Entities

Identified by slug field (URL-friendly identifiers):

Name-Based Entities

Identified by name field (internal configuration):

Singleton Entities

Only one instance exists (no identifier needed): Shop (global store settings).

Deployment Pipeline

Stage Order (Dependencies Matter)

1. Validation       -> Pre-flight checks
2. Shop Settings    -> Global configuration
3. Product Types    -> Must exist before products
4. Page Types       -> Must exist before pages
5. Attributes       -> Used by product/page types
6. Categories       -> Product organization
7. Collections      -> Product groupings
8. Warehouses       -> Required for inventory
9. Shipping Zones   -> Geographic shipping rules
10. Products        -> Depends on types, categories
11. Tax Config      -> Tax rules and classes
12. Channels        -> Sales channels
13. Menus           -> Navigation (may reference products)
14. Models          -> Custom data models

Key dependency: Cannot create a Product without its ProductType existing first.

Stage Execution Pattern

Each stage follows: Fetch remote state -> Compare local vs remote -> Plan creates/updates/deletes -> Execute with chunking -> Report results.

Configuration Schema

Top-level keys: shop, channels, taxClasses, productTypes, pageTypes, attributes, categories, collections, warehouses, shippingZones, products, menus, models. See designing-zod-schemas skill and src/modules/config/schema/schema.ts for full schema details.

Bulk Operations

Large operations are chunked (default: 50 items per chunk) to avoid timeouts. The GraphQL client handles HTTP 429 automatically with exponential backoff (max 5 retries).

Diff & Comparison Logic

Comparison Dimensions

For each entity type: Existence (does it exist remotely?), Equality (are fields equal?), Children (are nested structures equal?).

Diff Result Types

Actions: create, update, delete, unchanged. Each entity has a dedicated comparator (e.g., src/core/diff/comparators/category-comparator.ts) that matches by slug or name.

Common Patterns

Adding a New Entity Type

1. Define Zod schema in src/modules/config/schema/
2. Create service in src/modules/<entity>/
3. Create repository with GraphQL operations
4. Add comparator in src/core/diff/comparators/
5. Add deployment stage in pipeline
6. Update schema documentation

Common Mistakes

References

For detailed information, see:

• understanding-saleor-domain/references/entity-identification.md - Complete entity identification rules
• understanding-saleor-domain/references/deployment-stages.md - Pipeline stage details
• understanding-saleor-domain/references/schema-patterns.md - YAML configuration patterns
• docs/ENTITY_REFERENCE.md - Full entity documentation
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md - System architecture
• src/modules/config/schema/schema.ts - Zod schema definitions

Related Skills

• Implementing entities: See adding-entity-types for complete implementation workflow
• Config schemas: See designing-zod-schemas for schema patterns
• GraphQL operations: See writing-graphql-operations for Saleor API integration

Quick Reference Rules

For condensed quick references, see:

• .claude/rules/entity-development.md (automatically loaded when editing src/modules/**/*.ts)
• .claude/rules/diff-engine.md (automatically loaded when editing src/core/diff/**/*.ts)