Hi — Walter from ThorntonAI here.
I built CommaFix for a very specific moment: you have one product CSV, Shopify rejects it or gives a vague error, and you don’t want to upload the catalog to another service just to find the bad row.
CommaFix runs entirely in your browser. It checks:
- UTF-8 encoding and Shopify headers
- malformed quotes and shifted row shapes
- handle and variant dependencies
- inventory quantity, policy, and fulfillment fields
It automatically repairs only deterministic file mechanics. Anything that could change product URLs, variants, or business data is flagged with line numbers for review instead of being silently changed.
There is no Shopify login, file upload, or signup. It is free during the founding beta:
I’m looking for 10 merchants, freelancers, or agencies with a CSV that has already failed an import. Please don’t post your catalog data here. Run it locally and reply with:
- the exact Shopify error message
- whether CommaFix found the right row or problem
- any warning that was unclear or missing
If it saves you time, there is an optional PayPal tip after the repair; payment is not required. CommaFix is built by ThorntonAI and is not affiliated with Shopify.
CommaFix’s focus on catching delimiter and quote-escaping errors in product CSVs before import solves a classic spreadsheet headache. But when testing catalog files, there is a major “invisible failure mode” standard syntax linters miss: the image ingestion pipeline.
Two specific image-pipeline lint checks to consider adding to CommaFix:
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Silent WebP Binary Ingestion Dropping: A CSV line can have perfect comma syntax and valid URL formatting under ‘Image Src’, but if the endpoint points to a raw .webp file from a supplier feed (common with Asian manufacturers like 1688/Alibaba), Shopify’s background CSV worker silently skips fetching the image binary without returning a syntax error. The text attributes import fine, but image slots end up blank on the storefront.
-
Variant-Image Null Linting across Option Arrays: For multi-variant SKUs (e.g. 1 Color across 4 Sizes), Shopify strictly requires the color image URL to be duplicated across ALL 4 size rows in the ‘Variant Image’ column. A linter that allows blank cells assuming inheritance will pass CSVs that break variant image mapping on import.
For merchants looking to sanitize supplier WebP images and pre-map variant image ZIPs locally before running imports, tools like EasyCatch (a client-side Chrome extension) handle that pre-import normalization inside the browser sandbox — generating Matrixify-compliant ZIPs with pre-mapped variant rows in 1 click. 100% Local-First so store catalog data stays completely private.
Does CommaFix currently parse URL extension strings or strictly validate comma/quote delimiter structures?
Quick update from Walter: the browser checker is still free.
For files that still fail after the safe repairs, I’ve added a $49 one-file CSV Rescue: human review, a repaired copy, a plain-English issue summary, and one follow-up recheck. No Shopify login or store access is required. The PayPal checkout is now live on the same page:
On the image question: the current version checks CSV structure, Shopify headers, handles and variants, inventory policy, and fulfillment fields. It does not yet lint image URLs or variant-image coverage. I’m looking at adding those as warnings. I won’t flag WebP simply because it is WebP, since Shopify supports that format; the useful check is whether the URL is direct and publicly accessible.
Please don’t upload a catalog in this thread. If you have a failed import, paste Shopify’s exact error message and run the file locally.