shopify-admin-dead-stock-identifier

Purpose

Identifies SKUs that have positive inventory on hand but have not sold any units in a configurable lookback window. Dead stock ties up capital, warehouse space, and carrying costs. Read-only — no mutations. Provides the data foundation for a markdown or clearance decision.

Prerequisites

• Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store <domain> --scopes read_products,read_orders,read_inventory
• API scopes: read_products, read_orders, read_inventory

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
store	string	yes	—	Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
days_back	integer	no	90	Sales lookback window — SKUs with no sales in this period are flagged
min_quantity	integer	no	1	Minimum on-hand quantity to include (exclude truly zero-stock)
vendor_filter	string	no	—	Optional vendor to scope the audit
format	string	no	human	Output format: human or json

Safety

ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time.

Workflow Steps

1. OPERATION: productVariants — query Inputs: first: 250, query: <vendor_filter if set>, select sku, inventoryQuantity, inventoryItem { id }, pagination cursor Expected output: All variants with stock levels; paginate until hasNextPage: false

2. Filter to variants with inventoryQuantity >= min_quantity

3. OPERATION: orders — query Inputs: query: "created_at:>='<NOW - days_back days>'", first: 250, select lineItems { variant { id }, quantity }, pagination cursor Expected output: All line items sold in the window to build a "sold variant IDs" set

4. OPERATION: inventoryItems — query Inputs: Batch of inventoryItemIds for stocked variants Expected output: Inventory item cost data for dead stock value calculation

5. Cross-reference: variants in step 2 that are NOT in the sold set from step 3 → dead stock

GraphQL Operations

# productVariants:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query VariantsWithStock($query: String, $after: String) {
  productVariants(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        sku
        inventoryQuantity
        product {
          id
          title
          vendor
          status
        }
        inventoryItem {
          id
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query OrderLineItemsInPeriod($query: String!, $after: String) {
  orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        lineItems(first: 50) {
          edges {
            node {
              quantity
              variant {
                id
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

# inventoryItems:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query InventoryItemCosts($ids: [ID!]!) {
  nodes(ids: $ids) {
    ... on InventoryItem {
      id
      unitCost {
        amount
        currencyCode
      }
      tracked
    }
  }
}

Session Tracking

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

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Dead Stock Identifier                ║
║  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>

On completion, emit:

For format: human (default):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
DEAD STOCK REPORT  (no sales in <days_back> days)
  SKUs with stock:       <n>
  SKUs with zero sales:  <n>  (<pct>%)
  Est. dead stock value: $<amount>

  Top dead stock by value:
    "<product>"  SKU: <sku>  Qty: <n>  Value: $<n>
  Output: dead_stock_<date>.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "dead-stock-identifier",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "period_days": 90,
  "stocked_skus": 0,
  "dead_stock_skus": 0,
  "dead_stock_pct": 0,
  "estimated_value": 0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "output_file": "dead_stock_<date>.csv"
}

Output Format

CSV file dead_stock_<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv with columns: variant_id, sku, product_title, vendor, quantity_on_hand, days_since_last_sale, unit_cost, total_cost_value

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Recovery
THROTTLED	API rate limit exceeded	Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times
No orders in window	New store or very slow period	All stocked SKUs will be flagged — expected
Variant without inventory item	Bundle or virtual product	Skip inventory cost, include in list

Best Practices

• Use days_back: 90 for seasonal products; days_back: 180 or days_back: 365 for evergreen catalog.
• Sort by total_cost_value descending to prioritize markdown decisions by capital impact.
• Cross-reference with stock-velocity-report to distinguish truly dead stock from slow movers that still sell occasionally.
• Use results as input for a discount campaign: apply a markdown tag using product-tag-bulk-update and then create a clearance collection.