shopify-admin-discount-cost-trend

Purpose

Tracks how much money the store gave away in discounts over time, bucketed by week, month, or quarter, and broken down by discount code and discount type (percentage / fixed amount / free shipping / automatic). Answers: "is our discount spend trending up or down, and which campaigns are driving it?" Read-only — no mutations. Complements discount-roi-calculator (per-discount return) with a longitudinal view of total cost.

Prerequisites

Authenticated Shopify CLI session: shopify store auth --store <domain> --scopes read_orders
API scopes: read_orders

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
store	string	yes	—	Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com)
period	string	no	month	Bucket size: `week`, `month`, or `quarter`
periods_back	integer	no	12	Number of buckets to report
top_codes	integer	no	10	Top discount codes to break out individually; remainder grouped as `other`
include_shipping_discounts	bool	no	true	Whether to count shipping discounts in the totals
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

Compute window from period × periods_back (e.g., month × 12 → last 12 calendar months starting from the first day of the bucket 11 months ago)
OPERATION: orders — query Inputs: query: "created_at:>='<window_start>' financial_status:paid", first: 250, select createdAt, discountCodes, currentTotalDiscountsSet, totalDiscountsSet, cartDiscountAmountSet, discountApplications { allocationMethod, targetType, value, ... on DiscountCodeApplication { code }, ... on AutomaticDiscountApplication { title }, ... on ManualDiscountApplication { title } }, shippingLines { discountAllocations { allocatedAmountSet } }, pagination cursor Expected output: All paid orders in the window with discount data; paginate until hasNextPage: false
For each order, attribute discount cost:
- cart_discount = currentTotalDiscountsSet.shopMoney.amount
- shipping_discount = sum of shippingLines.discountAllocations.allocatedAmountSet (only if include_shipping_discounts: true)
- total_discount = cart_discount + shipping_discount
- Attribute by code: prefer first discountApplications.code for code discounts, title for automatic / manual
Bucket each order into its period (week-of-year, year-month, or year-quarter) and aggregate:
- Total discount cost per bucket
- Per discount code per bucket
- Per discount type per bucket (percentage, fixed_amount, shipping, automatic)
Identify top codes by total cost across the window; aggregate the rest as other

GraphQL Operations

# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query DiscountCostTrend($query: String!, $after: String) {
  orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        name
        createdAt
        discountCodes
        currentTotalDiscountsSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        totalDiscountsSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        cartDiscountAmountSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
        discountApplications(first: 10) {
          edges {
            node {
              allocationMethod
              targetType
              targetSelection
              value {
                ... on PricingPercentageValue { percentage }
                ... on MoneyV2 { amount currencyCode }
              }
              ... on DiscountCodeApplication { code }
              ... on AutomaticDiscountApplication { title }
              ... on ManualDiscountApplication { title description }
            }
          }
        }
        shippingLines(first: 5) {
          edges {
            node {
              title
              discountAllocations {
                allocatedAmountSet { shopMoney { amount currencyCode } }
              }
            }
          }
        }
      }
    }
    pageInfo { hasNextPage endCursor }
  }
}

Session Tracking

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

On start, emit:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: Discount Cost Trend                  ║
║  Store: <store domain>                       ║
║  Period: <period> × <periods_back>           ║
║  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):

══════════════════════════════════════════════
DISCOUNT COST TREND  (last <periods_back> <period>s)
  Total discount cost:    $<amount>
  Avg per <period>:        $<amount>
  Latest <period>:         $<amount>   (<delta_vs_prev_pct>% vs prior)

  By bucket:
    2025-Q1  $<n>   (cart $<n> / shipping $<n>)
    2025-Q2  $<n>   (cart $<n> / shipping $<n>)

  By discount type:
    code            $<n>   (<pct>%)
    automatic       $<n>   (<pct>%)
    manual          $<n>   (<pct>%)
    shipping        $<n>   (<pct>%)

  Top codes (by total cost):
    "<code>"        $<n>   (<pct>%)
    "<code>"        $<n>   (<pct>%)
    other           $<n>   (<pct>%)

  Output: discount_cost_trend_<date>.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════

For format: json, emit:

{
  "skill": "discount-cost-trend",
  "store": "<domain>",
  "period": "month",
  "periods_back": 12,
  "total_discount_cost": 0,
  "by_bucket": [],
  "by_type": { "code": 0, "automatic": 0, "manual": 0, "shipping": 0 },
  "top_codes": [],
  "currency": "USD",
  "output_file": "discount_cost_trend_<date>.csv"
}

Output Format

CSV file discount_cost_trend_<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv with columns: bucket, discount_code_or_title, discount_type, orders_count, cart_discount, shipping_discount, total_discount, currency

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Recovery
`THROTTLED`	API rate limit exceeded	Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times
Stacked discount codes	Multiple codes on one order	Attribute proportionally to each code by their `value` share, or label as `multi-code` if equal
Manual discount with no title	Cashier-entered with empty title	Group as `manual:untitled`
Multi-currency orders	Presentment currency != shop currency	Sum on `shopMoney.amount` (shop currency) for consistency

Best Practices

Use period: week for promotional businesses with frequent campaigns; period: month for stores with steady evergreen offers; period: quarter for board reporting.
A flat or rising trend with no campaign activity often points to automatic discount creep — review automatic discounts that have no end date.
Cross-reference the latest bucket against discount-roi-calculator to verify the cost increase is producing matching incremental revenue.
Set include_shipping_discounts: false if your accounting books shipping subsidy separately from product discounts.
Set up monthly automation: discount spend that drifts above budget should trigger a finance review before it shows up in margin reports.