Are we speaking of different things? I was talking about the metafields, not notes.
Notes are useless for me in my use-case as they’re customer-facing and we have internal data we’re trying to track that shouldn’t be shown to the customer.
Topic summary
Feature request to allow creating order Timeline comments via API (Timeline = the order’s history log). Many merchants and app developers want read/write access to record operational events directly on orders; today comments are read-only.
Initial response: Shopify acknowledged the request and logged it, noting that upcoming Fulfillment Orders API might help fulfillment workflows but not Timeline comments specifically.
Common use cases include:
- Support and helpdesk breadcrumbs (link tickets, tag staff, internal notifications)
- Fulfillment/vendor/WMS updates and shipping label events
- Auditable tag changes and workflow cues for CS/shipping teams
- Email/NFT/automation logs with timestamps
- Cross-app integration using the Timeline as a shared datastore
Current status (latest posts): No official API to add Timeline comments; multiple developer forum threads confirm comments remain read-only. No ETA provided.
Workarounds mentioned:
- Update Order Notes via API, which now logs a Timeline entry when notes change (may be customer-visible depending on theme/notifications).
- Use order metafields (multi-line text) to store logs; visible in admin but lacks native per-entry timestamps/history unless appended manually. Screenshots show how this appears.
Outcome: Unresolved and still requested; key question about timeline for implementation remains open.
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