Using DraftOrder mutations in development store

Retired Boards Appdev Custom Storefronts
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Topic summary

Custom storefront using Vue (Storefront API) with a custom checkout via Stripe; server finalizes paid orders in Shopify using Admin GraphQL. After Stripe confirms payment, the flow runs draftOrderCreate followed by draftOrderComplete to generate an order that remains editable in the Shopify admin (preferred over REST for post-creation edits). The team was informed Draft Orders shouldn’t be used in development stores and subsequently lost access to their dev store, creating uncertainty about compliant testing. Key questions: how to test this end-to-end DraftOrder workflow before moving to production, given the restriction on development stores; and whether there’s any API path to create orders that stay editable without Draft Orders. No alternative solution or guidance is provided yet; the thread is open and seeking official clarification and testing options.

Summarized with AI on December 28. AI used: gpt-5.
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Our stack is made up of a Vue front end using Storefront API, a custom checkout that uses Stripe to collect payment, and then a server that uses the Admin Graphql API to create an order in Shopify after payment is successful. We do not use any payment gateway or card processing within Shopify, we only want to create a record of an order for fulfillment.

We like to use Admin GraphQL API instead of the REST API because this keeps the order editable in the Shopify Dashboard. So after payment is successful with Stripe in the server, we run draftOrderCreate mutation and then draftOrderComplete mutation. This has worked perfectly for us but we were just told that DraftOrders should not be used in development stores and we were locked out of our store.

So we are very confused, how can we test this type of flow before implementing in production?

Is there a way to create an order with API that keeps it editable?