Sidekick now prepares Metafields Guru exports and bulk edits for you

Two days ago we brought Metafields Guru into Shopify Sidekick so you could ask it about your setup. Now Sidekick can also do the setup work for you: describe an export or a bulk edit in your own words, and it opens Metafields Guru with the items, metafields, and settings already filled in. Values for bulk edits are checked with Shopify before you even see the page - and nothing runs until you review it and click start.

What's new at a glance

• Exports in one sentence - tell Sidekick which items and metafields you need, or just ask for all of them, and the export page opens ready to go.
• Bulk edits in one sentence - set, move, or remove metafield values across a filtered selection or your entire catalog without building the actions by hand.
• Mistakes caught early - Shopify checks bulk edit values in advance, and Sidekick tells you how many items match before you open the page.
• You stay in control - Sidekick never changes your data on its own; you review everything in Metafields Guru and start it yourself.

Exports, prepared by Sidekick

Ask for an export the way you'd explain it to a colleague - "export the care guide and size chart of all active summer products" - and Sidekick fills in the export page for you:

• Which items - any Shopify admin search, for example tag:summer status:active.
• Which metafields - up to 25 specific metafields, up to 10 whole namespaces, or all metafields when you don't name any.
• File layout - one metafield per row (the default) or one metafield per column.
• Export mode - Default, Readable (references as titles and URLs, handy for reports), or Migration (references as handles, for moving metafields to another store).
• Extra columns and empty values - add fields like the product title or variant SKU, and include items where a metafield is still empty.

Exports work for products, variants, collections, customers, orders, draft orders, locations, companies, company locations, markets, pages, blogs, articles, and the shop. Metaobject exports are still set up directly in the app.

Bulk edits, prepared by Sidekick

Describe the change - "set the shipping note to 'Ships in 2 days' on every product tagged preorder that doesn't have one yet" - and Sidekick builds a bulk edit of up to 5 actions on the items matching your search:

• Set a value - only on items that don't have the metafield yet, or overwrite existing values (adding metafields in bulk).
• Manage lists - add items to the start or end of a list metafield, keep it sorted, create the list where it's missing, or remove specific items from it (managing lists).
• Move to another namespace and key - with or without keeping the original (changing a key or namespace).
• Remove metafields - optionally only those of a specific type (deleting metafields in bulk).

Bulk edits work for the same resources as exports, except the shop and metaobjects.

Checked before you open it

Sidekick doesn't just hand over a link and hope for the best. Before the link is created:

• The search is run with Shopify - you see how many items match, and Sidekick tells you right away if nothing does. If Shopify ignored part of the search (say, a filter it doesn't recognize), that comes back as a warning so Sidekick can fix it or let you know.
• Bulk edit values are validated by Shopify against one of the matching items, without writing anything to your store. A value Shopify rejects goes back to Sidekick to correct, instead of failing on thousands of items later.

When the page opens, anything worth a second look is shown in a "Check the settings prepared by Sidekick" banner, next to the matching items and the exact cost. Adjust what you like, then start it - or don't. A prepared export or bulk edit stays available for 24 hours.

A few requests to try:

• "Export metafields of all active products with Metafields Guru"
• "Export the custom.ingredients metafield of my collections, one column per metafield"
• "With Metafields Guru, move custom.material to specs.material on all products"
• "Help me bulk edit a product metafield with Metafields Guru"

FAQ

What are the prepare_export and prepare_bulk_edit tools?

They are the two Metafields Guru tools Sidekick uses when you ask it to export or bulk edit metafields. prepare_export builds an export (items from an admin search, up to 25 metafields or 10 namespaces or all metafields, rows or columns format, Default, Readable, or Migration mode, empty values, and extra columns), and prepare_bulk_edit builds a bulk edit of up to 5 actions (set a value, move to another namespace and key, or remove). Both only prepare the bulk action and return a link that opens it prefilled in Metafields Guru, together with the number of matching items and any warnings.

Does Sidekick start the export or bulk edit by itself?

No. Sidekick only prepares it. The link opens the export or bulk edit page in Metafields Guru with the settings filled in, where you review the matching items, warnings, and cost, and nothing is exported or changed until you start it yourself.

How does Sidekick check bulk edit values before I open the page?

When a bulk edit sets a metafield value, Metafields Guru asks Shopify to validate that value against one of the matching items, without writing anything to your store. If Shopify rejects it, Sidekick gets the error and can fix the value before giving you a link. Sidekick's search is also run in advance: you see how many items match, and a part of the search that Shopify ignored is reported as a warning.

Do exports and bulk edits prepared by Sidekick use app credits?

The same rules apply as for any export or bulk edit you set up yourself. The exact cost is shown on the Metafields Guru page before you start, so you can check it - or change the settings - first.

How long does a prepared export or bulk edit stay available?

A prepared export or bulk edit stays available for 24 hours, so you can come back to the Sidekick chat later and still open it. After that, just ask Sidekick to prepare it again.

Try it

Open Sidekick in your Shopify admin and describe the export or bulk edit you need, mentioning Metafields Guru. No extra setup is needed - the new tools ship with the app. New to Metafields Guru? Install it from the Shopify App Store, start with the introduction, or compare plans on the pricing page.