Metafields

Metafields let you attach typed, namespaced data to nine resource kinds — products, variants, collections, customers, orders, pages, blogs, articles, and the shop itself. They are strongly-typed, server-validated, stored in a separate polymorphic table, and exposed in Aqua/Liquid via the standard {owner}.metafields.{namespace}.{key} access pattern. Use them to:

attach app-specific data to a customer, order, or product (e.g. loyalty tier, subscription status, AI-generated badge text)
expose structured fields to merchants under Settings → Custom data that they can fill in per resource and reference in their theme
store references between resources (product_reference, collection_reference, file_reference) so themes can link related items

Apps store all per-store runtime data here. The platform does not give apps a filesystem to write to — install config, feature toggles, per-resource counters, event logs, etc. all live as metafields under an app_<handle_with_underscores> namespace. See Where to store app data in the Extensions overview for the conventions.

Two API contexts

Metafields are exposed through two parallel REST surfaces with different auth and capabilities.

Context	Base path	Auth	Use case
App API (this doc)	`/api/v1/...`	OAuth scopes `read_metafields` / `write_metafields`	Apps reading/writing their own metafields
Admin API	`/metafields...`, `/metafield-definitions...`	Merchant JWT	Admin UI, bulk save, definition management

Apps see and edit only the metafields they wrote (scoped by appId). The Admin API is what powers the admin’s Settings → Custom data and the inline editor on resource detail pages — apps cannot use it.

Operation	App API (OAuth)	Admin API (Merchant JWT)
List metafields	✓ `GET /api/v1/metafields.json`	✓ `GET /metafields`
Read by id	–	✓ `GET /metafields/:id`
Upsert one	✓ `POST /api/v1/metafields.json`	✓ `POST /metafields`
Bulk upsert (N at once)	–	✓ `POST /metafields/bulk`
Update by id	✓ `PUT /api/v1/metafields/:id.json`	✓ `PUT /metafields/:id`
Delete by id	✓ `DELETE /api/v1/metafields/:id.json`	✓ `DELETE /metafields/:id`
Definitions CRUD	–	✓ `/metafield-definitions/...`

Owner types (nine)

The ownerType field on every metafield identifies the kind of resource it attaches to. Validation is case-sensitive lowercase — sending "PRODUCT" returns a validation error.

`ownerType`	Resource	Aqua/Liquid drop
`shop`	Account / store	`shop.metafields`
`product`	Product	`product.metafields`
`variant`	Product variant	`variant.metafields`
`collection`	Category	`collection.metafields`
`customer`	Client	`customer.metafields`
`order`	Order	`order.metafields`
`page`	Page	`page.metafields`
`blog`	Blog	`blog.metafields`
`article`	Article (blog post)	`article.metafields`

Supported types (22)

Each metafield carries a type that determines validation, decoding, and how it renders in Aqua/Liquid.

Text

Type	Validations	`{{ mf }}` renders
`single_line_text_field`	`min`, `max`, `regex`, `choices`	string
`multi_line_text_field`	`min`, `max`, `regex`	string
`rich_text_field` (alias `rich_text`)	–	raw HTML, unescaped

Numeric / Boolean / Color

Type	Validations	Renders
`number_integer` (alias `integer`)	`min`, `max`	integer toString
`number_decimal`	`min`, `max`, `max_precision`	decimal toString
`boolean`	accepts `true`/`false`/`"true"`/`"false"`/`0`/`1`	`"true"` / `"false"`
`color`	6-char hex `#RRGGBB` only	`"#RRGGBB"`

Date / Time

Type	Format	Validations
`date`	ISO 8601 `YYYY-MM-DD`	`min`, `max` (date strings)
`date_time`	ISO 8601 with optional time + timezone	`min`, `max`

Measurements

Stored as { unit, value } objects. Renders as "<value> <unit>".

Type	Allowed `unit` values
`weight`	`KILOGRAMS`, `GRAMS`, `POUNDS`, `OUNCES`
`dimension`	`METERS`, `CENTIMETERS`, `MILLIMETERS`, `INCHES`, `FEET`, `YARDS`
`volume`	`MILLILITERS`, `CENTILITERS`, `LITERS`, `CUBIC_METERS`, `FLUID_OUNCES`, `PINTS`, `QUARTS`, `GALLONS` (+ `IMPERIAL_*` variants)

Money / Rating

Type	Shape	Notes
`money`	`{ amount: "12.50", currency_code: "USD" }`	currency must be ISO-4217. Pipe through `\| money` in Liquid.
`rating`	`{ scale_min, scale_max, value }`	`scale_max > scale_min`, `scale_min ≤ value ≤ scale_max`

URL / JSON

Type	Notes
`url`	parsed via `new URL()`. Default schemes `https`, `http`, `mailto`, `tel`. Override with `validations.allowed_schemes`.
`json` (alias `json_string`)	any JSON-serialisable value

References

Stored as id strings; the backend optionally verifies the id exists at write time. product_reference, variant_reference, collection_reference, customer_reference, page_reference, file_reference

Lists

list.<innerType> — array of items of innerType. Inner-type validations apply to each item.

Validation	Effect
`list_min` / `list_max`	array length bounds
inner-type rules	applied to each item

Wire format

Compound types are sent as JSON in the value field:

{
  "namespace": "custom",
  "key": "weight",
  "type": "weight",
  "value": { "unit": "KILOGRAMS", "value": 1.2 },
  "ownerType": "product",
  "ownerId": "..."
}

Scalars are sent as-is:

{
  "namespace": "custom",
  "key": "warranty_years",
  "type": "number_integer",
  "value": 5,
  "ownerType": "product",
  "ownerId": "..."
}

Lists are arrays:

{
  "namespace": "custom",
  "key": "tags",
  "type": "list.single_line_text_field",
  "value": ["red", "limited", "sale"],
  "ownerType": "product",
  "ownerId": "..."
}

Validation errors

Type or validation failures return HTTP 400 with a structured errors array:

{
  "statusCode": 400,
  "message": "Metafield value validation failed",
  "errors": [
    { "field": "value", "message": "value must be <= 25" }
  ]
}

Cache invalidation

Writes to a metafield automatically expire the relevant storefront caches — both the cached copy of the owning resource and any cached page HTML that rendered it. The next storefront render will see the new value. You don’t need to poll — if you need to react to changes, register a metafields/update webhook instead.

Best practices for apps

Use your own namespace. Don’t write under custom (the merchant namespace). Use your app handle (e.g. subscriptions_pro, loyalty_engine) so merchants can see what’s yours and apps don’t collide on key names.
Pre-create definitions during app install. Apps can POST /metafield-definitions (with merchant scope, not OAuth) on first install if you want the schema to appear in the merchant admin. For OAuth-only apps, write values directly without defining first.
Pin definitions that merchants need to fill in — they show up on the resource detail page in admin.
Don’t poll. Use webhooks.

Metafields Overview

Metafields

Two API contexts

Owner types (nine)

Supported types (22)

Text

Numeric / Boolean / Color

Date / Time

Measurements

Money / Rating

URL / JSON

References

Lists

Wire format

Validation errors

Cache invalidation

Best practices for apps

See also

​Metafields

​Two API contexts

​Owner types (nine)

​Supported types (22)

​Text

​Numeric / Boolean / Color

​Date / Time

​Measurements

​Money / Rating

​URL / JSON

​References

​Lists

​Wire format

​Validation errors

​Cache invalidation

​Best practices for apps

​See also

Metafields

Two API contexts

Owner types (nine)

Supported types (22)

Text

Numeric / Boolean / Color

Date / Time

Measurements

Money / Rating

URL / JSON

References

Lists

Wire format

Validation errors

Cache invalidation

Best practices for apps

See also