Shopify Sidekick prompts that actually save time: 30+ tested examples (2026)

May 6, 2026
Shopify Tips
13 min read
Shopify Sidekick prompts that actually save time: 30+ tested examples (2026)

Shopify Sidekick is finally good. Not “AI demo” good, but “actually replaces hours of admin clicking” good. The Winter ’26 update added Sidekick Pulse (proactive recommendations), multi-step task execution, custom app generation, theme editing in plain English, and reusable Skills. The catch is that Sidekick’s quality scales with your prompts. Vague prompts produce vague results. Specific prompts produce work that lands ready to ship.

This post is the working-merchant collection. 30+ specific Sidekick prompts grouped by task, with the patterns that actually produce useful output. Plus a short anatomy of what makes a prompt work, the common mistakes, and how to save the best ones as Sidekick Skills you can reuse without retyping.

Disclosure: we make Rubik Variant Images and Rubik Combined Listings, both of which work alongside Sidekick on every Shopify plan. We will mention them where they actually fit. The rest of this post is just useful prompts.

In this post

What makes a good Sidekick prompt (and what wastes time)

Three things separate a Sidekick prompt that returns useful work from one that returns vague filler:

  • Specifics, not generics. “Create a discount” is generic. “Create a 15% off code called SUMMER15 that applies to the Summer Collection, runs from June 1 to August 31, capped at 500 uses” is specific.
  • Constraints up front. If the output should be under 50 words, say so. If it should not include emojis, say so. Constraints make Sidekick’s output usable on the first try.
  • The actual job, not the abstract job. “Help me with marketing” is abstract. “Draft three email subject lines for Black Friday targeting customers who bought from us last year but not this year” is the actual job.

Anatomy of a working prompt: action verb + specific target + constraints + desired output format. Examples below all follow this pattern.

Discounts and promotions (5 prompts)

  1. “Create a 20% off code called WELCOME20 for first-time customers, no minimum spend, valid for 30 days from today.” Sidekick creates the code, sets the customer eligibility filter, sets the time window, and shows you the link to share.
  2. “Set up a sitewide flash sale of 25% off, running from this Friday at 9am to Sunday at midnight, exclude products tagged ‘final-sale,’ and tag all orders with ‘flash-q4’.” Discount + automation tag in one go.
  3. “Create a buy-one-get-one-50%-off discount that applies only to the Tee Shirts collection, with a maximum 200 uses across the whole campaign.”
  4. “Build a free shipping promotion for orders over $80, valid in the US and Canada only, excluding bulk-tagged products.”
  5. “Compare the performance of my last three discount codes and tell me which one had the highest revenue per redemption and the lowest discount-to-AOV ratio.” Sidekick pulls the data and gives you a comparison table you can act on.

Customer segments and marketing (5 prompts)

  1. “Create a customer segment for shoppers who placed 3 or more orders in the last 12 months, spent over $300 total, and have not ordered in the last 60 days.” Builds the segment in one shot, ready for an email campaign.
  2. “Show me my top 50 customers by lifetime revenue with their first purchase date and last order date.” Useful for VIP outreach.
  3. “Draft a win-back email for customers who purchased from us between January and March but have not bought since. Tone is friendly, not desperate. Include a 15% off code valid for 14 days.”
  4. “Generate three subject line variants for an abandoned cart email, each under 50 characters, no emojis, with a sense of urgency but not pushy.”
  5. “Compare repeat purchase rate by acquisition channel for the last 6 months. Group by Google, Facebook, Instagram, organic, and direct. Tell me which channel has the highest LTV.”

Analytics and insights (5 prompts)

  1. “Why did my sales drop last week compared to the week before? Break it down by traffic source, product category, and conversion rate.” The single most useful Sidekick prompt for diagnostic moments. Pulls multi-dimensional analysis you would otherwise hand-build in reports.
  2. “Project the next 90 days of sales and inventory needs for my top 20 products based on the last 12 months of sales velocity.” Sidekick handles the seasonality math; you get a forecast and reorder list.
  3. “What is my AOV trend over the last 6 months, broken down by mobile vs desktop, and what is driving the difference?”
  4. “Find products with declining add-to-cart rates over the last 30 days. Tell me which ones might need refreshed images, copy, or pricing.”
  5. “Show me my conversion rate by hour of day for the last 30 days. When are my best-converting hours and what is the worst hour?” Useful for ad scheduling and live-chat staffing.

Products and inventory (5 prompts)

  1. “Find all products that have been out of stock for more than 30 days and have not been restocked. Tag them with ‘archive-candidate’ so I can review.”
  2. “Identify products in my catalog that are missing alt text on their main image, then draft suggested alt text for each one based on the product title and description.”
  3. “List the top 10 products by gross margin (revenue minus cost of goods) over the last 90 days.” Margin-sorted, not revenue-sorted, surfaces underrated products.
  4. “Add a metafield called ‘care_instructions’ to all products in the Apparel category and populate it with the default value ‘Hand wash cold, hang dry.’ Skip products that already have a value set.”
  5. “Find products with a price ending in .00 and suggest psychologically optimized pricing (.99 or .95) where it would not break the brand positioning. Show before and after.”

Workflow automations with Flow (4 prompts)

Sidekick now writes Shopify Flow automations from natural language. The prompt becomes a working flow you approve. These four are the ones we use most:

  1. “When inventory for any product drops below 10 units, send me a Slack alert in the #ops channel and tag the product ‘low-stock’.”
  2. “When a customer places their second order, automatically tag them as ‘returning-customer’ and add them to the ‘VIP-prospects’ segment.”
  3. “When an order over $300 comes in, tag it ‘priority-packing,’ notify the warehouse via email, and add a note for gift wrapping eligibility.”
  4. “When a customer leaves a review under 3 stars, automatically email me with the review text, the product, and the customer’s order history so I can reach out personally.”

Sidekick generates the flow, you review it before saving. Edit any node before approving. Built-in actions cover Slack, email, tags, customer segments, and product updates without third-party middleware.

Content writing (4 prompts)

  1. “Write a product description for [Product Name], a [type] made from [materials], for [audience]. Tone is conversational, no marketing fluff. Include three specific benefits and one use case. Under 150 words.”
  2. “Draft a blog post outline for ‘How to layer winter accessories.’ 6 sections, target 1500 words, include 3 product mentions from my catalog, and end with a call to action linking to my Winter Collection.”
  3. “Generate 5 social media captions for our new release. Each under 200 characters, no hashtags, conversational tone, one with a question hook, one with a benefit hook, one with a story hook.”
  4. “Write three subject line variations for our holiday campaign email. Each under 50 characters, urgency without exclamation points, no emojis.”

Theme edits and design (4 prompts)

Sidekick can now read your theme and propose Liquid or CSS changes. You approve before commit. These prompts solve the most common “I just want this one thing changed” requests:

  1. “Make the Add to Cart button on my product page bigger on mobile, with rounded corners and the brand color. Show me the diff before applying.”
  2. “Change my product grid to 3 columns on desktop and 2 on mobile, with tighter spacing between cards.”
  3. “Add a sticky ‘free shipping over $80’ announcement bar at the top of every page, only visible on mobile, in our brand color.”
  4. “Hide the ‘Pickup available at’ text on product pages for products tagged ‘shipping-only.'”

For deeper Liquid edits and theme-specific quirks (especially Horizon), our Horizon variant button fix guide covers the bigger Liquid patterns Sidekick sometimes misses.

Variant images and combined listings (3 prompts)

Sidekick does not natively manage variant image assignments or combined listings, but it can prepare the work or audit the state. Three prompts that pair well with Rubik:

  1. “List products in my catalog where one or more variants is missing an assigned image. Group by product type.” Sidekick produces the audit list; Rubik Variant Images handles the assignment, including AI auto-assign that analyzes the product title, variant option values, image filename, alt text, and the image itself via vision model.
  2. “Find products in my catalog that have similar titles like ‘Sarah Bra – Olive’ and ‘Sarah Bra – Black’ and might be the same product split across colors. Group them by likely sibling and tell me how many groups would result.” Sidekick produces the analysis; Rubik Combined Listings applies the grouping with bulk tools that detect title patterns automatically.
  3. “Show me products that have been added in the last 30 days that are missing alt text on at least one image. Draft suggested alt text for each, based on the product title and color variant.” Improves AI search visibility (since Agentic Storefronts and AI search rely on alt text and image context).

Save your best prompts as Sidekick Skills

The Sidekick Skills feature added in Winter ’26 lets you save a prompt as a reusable shortcut. Type the skill name in Sidekick and the saved prompt runs without retyping. Three workflow patterns:

  • Daily routine. Save a “Daily Sales Pulse” skill that asks Sidekick to summarize yesterday’s sales, top 3 products, and any anomalies. Run it every morning in 5 seconds.
  • Recurring campaigns. Save a “Black Friday setup” skill with the full campaign prompt (discount code, segment, email draft, automation flow). Reusable next year with one click.
  • Team templates. Save skills like “Weekly inventory report” and share with your operations team. They run the same query without you being a bottleneck.

To save a skill: complete a prompt, click the “Save as skill” button on the response, name it, optionally share with your team. Browse your skill library in the Sidekick panel.

Common Sidekick prompt mistakes

  • Asking for “best practices” without context. “What are the best email marketing practices?” returns generic advice you could find anywhere. “Look at my last 3 email campaigns and tell me what to test next” is grounded in your actual data.
  • Not specifying output format. “Tell me about my customers” returns a paragraph. “Show me a table with the top 20 customers by LTV, columns for first order, last order, total spend, and order count” returns a usable table.
  • Skipping the dry run. For destructive actions (deleting products, applying tags to thousands of items), always ask Sidekick to “preview the changes before applying.” The dry-run output catches mistakes before they hit your live store.
  • Treating Sidekick as a search engine. “What is the best Shopify theme?” is a search engine question. “Compare my current theme’s performance metrics with the average for stores in my category” is a Sidekick question.
  • Approving theme edits without reading the diff. Sidekick is good. Not perfect. Always read the proposed Liquid or CSS change before clicking apply, especially on production themes.

What Sidekick still cannot do well

Honest assessment of where Sidekick is weak as of mid-2026:

  • Complex multi-app orchestration. “Adjust my Klaviyo flow based on Shopify customer segments, then update Recharge subscription terms” requires Sidekick to span apps it does not control. Workflows split across multiple tools still need manual stitching.
  • Variant image assignment at scale. Sidekick can audit which products are missing variant images but cannot assign them automatically. Use a dedicated app for this.
  • Production-grade custom apps. The custom-app generator scaffolds working code but the output usually needs developer review before going live. Use it for prototypes, not for shipping.
  • Subjective design judgment. “Make my homepage look more premium” returns an interpretation; whether that interpretation is right is on you. Tighten the prompt with specific design references.
  • Quantitative forecasts under 30 days of data. Sidekick’s forecasts get sharper with data. New stores see thin recommendations; mature stores see real ones.
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Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify Sidekick free?

Yes. Sidekick is included on every Shopify plan from Basic to Plus, with token allowances that scale with the plan tier. Heavy users on Basic may bump into limits during peak workflows; Advanced and Plus stores get more generous allowances. There is no separate Sidekick subscription.

Can Sidekick run automations on its own?

Sidekick Pulse runs proactively in the background and surfaces recommendations, but execution still requires your approval. For destructive or store-wide actions (applying tags, sending campaigns, deleting items), Sidekick previews the change and asks you to confirm before applying.

How do I save a Sidekick prompt as a reusable Skill?

After running a prompt that produced useful output, click the “Save as skill” button on the response. Name the skill, optionally add a description and share with your team. From then on, type the skill name in Sidekick and it runs the saved prompt without retyping.

Can Sidekick edit my theme code?

Yes. Sidekick can read your theme’s Liquid and CSS, propose specific changes from a natural-language prompt, and apply them after you approve the diff. Best for small targeted edits (button colors, padding, hide blocks, add announcement bars). For large structural changes, work with a developer or use a paid theme support service.

Can Sidekick assign variant images?

Sidekick can audit which products are missing variant image assignments but does not natively assign images. For automated variant image assignment, use a dedicated app like Rubik Variant Images that pairs with Sidekick. Sidekick produces the list of products to fix, the app handles the actual assignment.

What is the best way to write a Sidekick prompt?

Use this structure: action verb plus specific target plus constraints plus desired output format. For example, “Compare sales for Collection A vs Collection B over the last 30 days, group by traffic source, return as a table.” Specifics produce useful work; vague prompts produce vague work.

Does Sidekick replace a marketing manager?

No. Sidekick handles execution and analysis tasks well but is not a substitute for strategic judgment. Think of it as a fast junior teammate that knows Shopify cold and can produce drafts, run analyses, and execute approved changes. The marketing manager defines what to test and why; Sidekick handles the implementation.

One last thing. Sidekick is improving fast. Prompts that did not work in January work in May. Re-test the ones that disappointed you the first time. The model is not the same model anymore.

Co-Founder at Craftshift

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