Feature Request: API Access to Purchase Orders for Sidekick Custom Apps

Technical Q&A
1

Hi Shopify Community,

I’m reaching out to see if others share this need and to encourage Shopify to prioritize this functionality.

Background:

I’ve been working with Sidekick AI to build a custom reorder forecasting app for my store. The goal is simple: analyze sales velocity, current stock levels, and lead times to recommend optimal purchase quantities for restocking.

The app works well with the data it can access - it pulls sales history, inventory levels, and calculates forecasts based on consumption patterns. However, there’s a critical piece missing that makes the recommendations less accurate than they could be.

The Problem:

Sidekick-built custom apps currently don’t have API access to Purchase Orders. This means the app cannot see products that are already on order and in transit. Without this data, the app might recommend ordering products that I’ve already purchased but haven’t received yet, leading to potential overstock situations.

For a reorder forecasting tool to be truly effective, it needs to know:

  • Current stock on hand :white_check_mark: (available)

  • Sales velocity :white_check_mark: (available)

  • Incoming stock from existing purchase orders :cross_mark: (not available)

Why This Matters:

Purchase orders are a fundamental part of inventory management in Shopify. The data exists in the platform, but the API permissions available to Sidekick custom apps don’t include access to this information. This creates an unnecessary limitation for merchants trying to build intelligent inventory management solutions.

The Ask:

I’d love to see Shopify expand the API scope available to Sidekick custom apps to include read access to purchase order data. This would enable:

  • More accurate reorder point calculations

  • Better inventory forecasting

  • Reduced risk of overordering

  • Smarter automation for inventory management

This feels like a no-brainer integration - the AI assistant should be able to access one of Shopify’s core ordering functions to help merchants make better inventory decisions.

Question to the Community:

Has anyone else run into this limitation? Are there other use cases where purchase order API access would be valuable for custom apps or automations?

I’d appreciate any support in getting this prioritized, and I’m curious if there are workarounds others have found in the meantime.

Thanks for reading!

2

Hi @DecorRoom

Well, I think that the most effective workaround is to flatten this data into a resource that Sidekick can already access. You can set up a Shopify Flow or a simple scheduled script to sum up the incoming quantities from your open purchase orders and write that total to a custom variant metafield.

Since Sidekick can easily read product data and metafields, it can then use this value as the missing variable in your reorder calculations.

Hope this helps!

3

This might work with AI Hero. They have access to pretty much everything.

4

AI Hero did not work for this

5

Hi @DecorRoom .

Yes, this is a real limit, confirmed by Shopify’s own docs. Sidekick apps can only see Orders, Products, Customers, and Discounts. Purchase Orders are not included, so it is not a bug, just a current restriction.

Workaround: Build a separate custom app not through Sidekick with access to purchase order data. It takes more setup, but it isn’t limited by Sidekick’s restricted API.

For your request: Keep sharing it on the Shopify Community forum, good move, and also submit it through the official feedback form in your Shopify admin, since that’s tracked separately by Shopify’s product team.