hile the price update runs. Ralph starts the inventory update concurrently. Updating inventory in Shopify requires six API calls per SKU: 1. Query the product to get the variant ID 2. Query the variant to get the `inventoryItemId` 3. Query `inventoryLevels` to find the location ID 4. Query the location to confirm the fulfillment center 5. Call `inventoryAdjustQuantities` with item ID, location ID, and delta 6. Verify the adjustment with a follow-up query ```graphql mutation inventoryAdjustQuantities($input: InventoryAdjustQuantitiesInput!) { inventoryAdjustQuantities(input: $input) { inventoryAdjustmentGroup { reason changes { name, delta } } userErrors { field, message } } } ``` The mutation requires an `inventoryItemId` — not the variant ID, not the product ID, a third identifier that maps one-to-one with variants but uses a different namespace. Eight products, six calls each: 48 API calls. Ralph's combined operations exceed the 1,000-point bucket. He hits the throttle: ```json { "errors": [ { "message": "Throttled", "extensions": { "code": "THROTTLED", "documentation": "https://shopify.dev/api/usage/rate-limits" } } ] } ``` Ralph adds backoff logic. Operations that should take seconds stretch to 90 seconds of throttled retries. ## The Liquid Template Wall Jasmine wants the homepage banner changed to the holiday design. The storefront layout — what customers see — is controlled by a Shopify **theme** written in **Liquid**, Shopify's proprietary templating language. Liquid files combine HTML, CSS, and Liquid tags: ```liquid {% section 'hero-banner' %} {% if collection.handle == 'holiday-2026' %} {% else %} {% endif %} ``` The Liquid syntax embeds business logic inside presentation markup. `{% if collection.handle == 'holiday-2026' %}` is a conditional rendered at page-build time. `{{ section.settings.heading }}` is a reference to a theme setting stored in a separate JSON file (`config/settings_data.json`). The heading text is not in the template — it is in the settings data. The template is a rendering engine. The settings data is the content. They live in different files with different access patterns. Ralph accesses themes through the Admin API: ```graphql query { themes(first: 5) { edges { node { id name role files(first: 50, filenames: ["templates/index.json", "sections/hero-banner.liquid"]) { edges { node { filename body { ... on OnlineStoreThemeFileBodyText { content } } } } } } } } } ``` The theme file body is returned as a raw string — the Liquid template source code. To change the banner heading, Ralph must: 1. Fetch the active theme 2. Fetch the `sections/hero-banner.liquid` file to understand the template structure 3. Fetch the `config/settings_data.json` file to find the current heading value 4. Parse the JSON settings to locate the hero-banner section's `heading` property 5. Modify the JSON 6. Push the updated settings file back to the theme ```graphql mutation themeFilesUpsert($themeId: ID!, $files: [OnlineStoreThemeFilesUpsertFileInput!]!) { themeFilesUpsert(themeId: $themeId, files: $files) { upsertedThemeFiles { filename } userErrors { field, message } } } ``` Changing a banner heading requires understanding Liquid template syntax, JSON settings file structure, section configuration schemas, and the GraphQL file upsert API. An agent that understands "change the homepage banner" must also understand Shopify's theme architecture. The storefront is not data-driven. It is template-driven, and the templates are a proprietary language with conditional logic, loops, filters, and object references. If the theme uses a third-party template from the Shopify

{{ section.settings.heading }}

{{ shop.name }}