Flows and trigger guide

Use Flow Trigger Extension in Shopify Flow

Flow Trigger Extension adds 24 triggers to Shopify Flow so you can automate store changes that Shopify Flow does not track well on its own. When you build a flow, the most important decision is choosing the right trigger at the start.

This guide helps you match real trigger names to the workflows you want to automate, including order changes, product and variant updates, discount lifecycle events, customer updates, collection changes, metafield changes, and storefront content edits.

Before you build a flow

Choose the right trigger

Order triggers

Use these triggers when you need to react to changes after an order already exists.

• Order Update: Best for broad order edits such as address changes, note changes, or tag updates.
• Order Line Items Changed: Best when products, quantities, prices, or variants on the order are added, removed, or edited.
• Order Fulfillment Changed: Best for fulfillment progress, including partial fulfillment, completed fulfillment, cancelled fulfillment, or tracking-related updates.
• Order Display Status Changed: Best when you care about the order's display fulfillment status, including statuses such as in_progress or on_hold.

When to use them:

• Notify your team when line items change after an order is placed.
• Run a follow-up process when fulfillment status changes.
• Separate operational flows for general order edits versus item-level edits.

Product and variant triggers

Use these triggers when your catalog changes need automation.

• Product Update: Use when product details such as title, description, images, or status change.
• Product Variant Price Changed: Use when price or compare-at price changes.
• Product Variant SKU Changed: Use when a SKU is added, changed, or removed.
• Product Variant Barcode Changed: Use when barcode data changes.
• Product Variant Unit Price Changed: Use when unit price per measurement changes.

When to use them:

• Alert your merchandising team when a variant price changes.
• Sync external systems only when SKU data changes.
• Track compliance-sensitive barcode changes without reacting to unrelated product edits.

Discount triggers

Use these triggers to automate the full lifecycle of discount campaigns.

• Discount Created: Use when a new automatic or code discount is created.
• Discount Updated: Use when discount settings such as value, conditions, or dates change.
• Discount Expired: Use when a discount reaches its end date and becomes inactive.
• Discount Deleted: Use when a discount is permanently deleted.
• Discount Code Added: Use when a redeem code is added to a code discount.
• Discount Code Removed: Use when a redeem code is removed.

When to use them:

• Send an internal notice when a discount expires.
• Audit campaign changes by reacting to Discount Updated.
• Track code additions and removals separately from the discount itself.

Customer and company triggers

Use these triggers when customer records or B2B company records change.

• Customer Update: Use when customer details such as name, email, tags, addresses, or notes change.
• Company Update: Use when a B2B company profile is modified.
• Company Location Update: Use when a company location record changes.

When to use them:

• Flag account changes for review.
• Sync updated B2B records to another system.
• Separate company-level changes from location-level changes.

Collection triggers

Use Collection Update when collection rules change or when products are added to or removed from a collection.

When to use it:

• Notify a team when a smart collection rule changes.
• React when product membership changes inside a collection.

Metafield and metaobject triggers

Use these triggers when your store depends on custom data.

• Metafield Update: Use when a monitored metafield changes on supported resources including Product, Variant, Collection, Customer, Order, Company, Company Location, Blog, Article, or Page.
• Metaobject Entry Updated: Use when a metaobject entry changes.

When to use them:

• Run flows when structured product attributes change.
• Monitor custom content records stored as metaobjects.

Content and CMS triggers

Use these triggers when storefront content changes should start a workflow.

• Blog Update: Use when a blog's settings or details change.
• Blog Post Update: Use when an article is edited, including title, content, tags, or publish status.
• Page Update: Use when an online store page is updated.

When to use them:

• Review content edits before a campaign launches.
• Notify stakeholders when blog posts or pages are changed.
• Track storefront content operations in the same automation system as catalog and order events.

Common flow patterns

Monitor price changes

Start the flow with Product Variant Price Changed when you only want to react to pricing updates. This keeps the flow focused and avoids running for unrelated product edits.

Catch post-purchase order edits

Start the flow with Order Line Items Changed if you want to react when quantities, variants, or item pricing are adjusted after checkout.

Track discount lifecycle events

Use separate flows for Discount Created, Discount Updated, and Discount Expired if each event should trigger a different team process.

Watch custom data

Use Metafield Update for stores that rely on custom attributes to control operations, merchandising, or storefront behavior.

React to content changes

Use Blog Post Update or Page Update when content approvals, reviews, or notifications should happen automatically after edits.

How to decide between similar triggers

Best practices

• Use the most specific trigger available to reduce unnecessary flow runs.
• Split large processes into multiple flows when different events need different actions.
• Name flows after the exact trigger they use so they are easier to manage later.
• Review discount and content flows carefully during busy campaign periods, since those records may change often.

At a glance: trigger categories

• Order Triggers: Order Update, Order Line Items Changed, Order Fulfillment Changed, Order Display Status Changed
• Product & Variant Triggers: Product Update, Product Variant Price Changed, Product Variant SKU Changed, Product Variant Barcode Changed, Product Variant Unit Price Changed
• Discount Triggers: Discount Created, Discount Updated, Discount Expired, Discount Deleted, Discount Code Added, Discount Code Removed
• Customer & Company Triggers: Customer Update, Company Update, Company Location Update
• Collection Triggers: Collection Update
• Metafield & Metaobject Triggers: Metafield Update, Metaobject Entry Updated
• Content / CMS Triggers: Blog Update, Blog Post Update, Page Update