Woo bulk price adjustment

woo-bulk-price-adjustment

Purpose

Adjust the regular_price (and optionally sale_price) of a filtered set of products by a percentage or fixed amount. Supports filtering by category, tag, product type, or stock status. Includes configurable minimum and maximum price guards to prevent prices going below cost or above a ceiling. Always previews the full change set before executing.

Prerequisites

• WooCommerce store with REST API enabled (WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced → REST API)
• Consumer Key and Consumer Secret with Read/Write scope
• Store accessible over HTTPS
• Minimum WooCommerce version: 3.5.0

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
store_url	string	yes	—	Base URL of the WooCommerce store (e.g., https://mystore.com)
consumer_key	string	yes	—	WooCommerce REST API consumer key (ck_...)
consumer_secret	string	yes	—	WooCommerce REST API consumer secret (cs_...)
dry_run	bool	no	true	Preview changes without executing mutations
format	string	no	human	Output format: human or json
adjustment_type	string	yes	—	percentage or fixed
adjustment_value	number	yes	—	Amount to adjust. Positive = increase, negative = decrease. For percentage: -10 means reduce 10%.
category_id	int	no	—	Limit to products in this category ID
tag_id	int	no	—	Limit to products with this tag ID
product_type	string	no	—	simple, variable, or omit for all
min_price	number	no	0	Do not set any price below this value
max_price	number	no	—	Do not set any price above this value
apply_to_sale_price	bool	no	false	Also adjust sale_price when set

Authentication

WooCommerce uses OAuth 1.0a for HTTP and Basic Auth over HTTPS.

For HTTPS stores (recommended):

Authorization: Basic base64(consumer_key:consumer_secret)

For HTTP stores (development only): Use OAuth 1.0a — include oauth_consumer_key, oauth_nonce, oauth_signature, oauth_signature_method=HMAC-SHA1, oauth_timestamp, oauth_version=1.0

Never log or output consumer_key or consumer_secret values.

See docs/AUTHENTICATION.md for full setup instructions.

Safety

Steps 4–5 execute irreversible price mutations. Always run with dry_run: true first (the default) and verify the preview before executing live. The batch update endpoint modifies prices immediately with no undo — take a product export backup beforehand for large catalogs.

Workflow Steps

Step 1 — Discover category (if category_id provided)

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products/categories/{category_id}

Extract: id, name — used to confirm scope in the startup banner.

Step 2 — Fetch products

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products
  ?status=publish
  &per_page=100
  &page=1
  [&category=<category_id>]
  [&tag=<tag_id>]
  [&type=<product_type>]

Extract per product: id, name, type, sku, regular_price, sale_price Paginate until response length < 100.

Step 3 — Fetch variations for variable products

For each product where type == "variable":

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}/variations
  ?per_page=100&page=1

Extract per variation: id, sku, regular_price, sale_price Paginate until response length < 100.

Step 4 — Compute new prices

For each product / variation:

if adjustment_type == "percentage":
  new_price = current_price * (1 + adjustment_value / 100)
else:
  new_price = current_price + adjustment_value

new_price = max(new_price, min_price)
if max_price is set:
  new_price = min(new_price, max_price)

new_price = round(new_price, 2)

Skip items where current_price is empty or "0" (gift cards, externally-priced).

Step 5 — Preview or execute

If dry_run: true: output the preview table (see Output Format) and stop. Do not make any PUT or POST calls.

If dry_run: false and user has confirmed the preview:

For simple products — batch update via:

POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/batch
  Body: {
    "update": [
      { "id": <id>, "regular_price": "<new_price>" },
      ...
    ]
  }

For variable products — per-product variation batch:

POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}/variations/batch
  Body: {
    "update": [
      { "id": <variation_id>, "regular_price": "<new_price>" },
      ...
    ]
  }

Send in batches of 50 to stay within WooCommerce's batch limit. Emit a progress line after each batch.

API Endpoints Used

GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/products/categories/{id}          — verify category exists
GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/products                           — list products with filters
GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}                     — fetch single product
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/batch                    — bulk update simple product prices
GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}/variations          — list variations for variable product
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}/variations/batch    — bulk update variation prices

Pagination Strategy

WooCommerce REST API uses page/per_page pagination (not cursor-based).

Standard pattern:

page = 1
while True:
  response = GET /endpoint?per_page=100&page=page
  process(response)
  if len(response) < 100: break
  page += 1

Maximum per_page is 100 for most endpoints. The X-WP-Total and X-WP-TotalPages response headers report totals. Always read X-WP-TotalPages on the first request to estimate job size.

Session Tracking

Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.

STARTUP:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL: woo-bulk-price-adjustment        ║
║  STORE: <store_url>                      ║
║  TIME:  <ISO-8601 UTC>                   ║
║  MODE:  <DRY RUN | LIVE>                 ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

PER-OPERATION (emit after each API call batch):

[N/TOTAL] <METHOD> <endpoint> → <result_count> records | params: <key>=<val>

COMPLETION (human format):

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  COMPLETE: woo-bulk-price-adjustment     ║
║  RECORDS PROCESSED: <n>                  ║
║  OUTPUT: <filename or "stdout">          ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

COMPLETION (json format):

{
  "skill": "woo-bulk-price-adjustment",
  "store": "<store_url>",
  "completed_at": "<ISO-8601>",
  "records_processed": <n>,
  "output_file": "<path or null>",
  "dry_run": <bool>
}

Output Format

Dry-run / preview table (human format):

PREVIEW — 47 products would be updated (DRY RUN)
Adjustment: -10% | Min price: $5.00 | Category: Accessories

  SKU          Name                      Current    New        Δ
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ACC-001      Leather Wallet            $29.99     $26.99     -$3.00
  ACC-002      Canvas Tote               $19.99     $17.99     -$2.00
  ACC-003-S    Canvas Tote (Small)       $14.99     $13.49     -$1.50
  ...
  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Total products: 47 | Skipped (no price): 2 | Guarded (min): 1

CSV export (when format=csv or for audit trail):

CSV filename: woo-bulk-price-adjustment_<YYYY-MM-DD>.csv Columns: product_id, variation_id, sku, name, old_price, new_price, change_amount, change_pct, guarded, skipped

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Resolution
401 Unauthorized	Invalid or missing credentials	Verify consumer_key and consumer_secret
403 Forbidden	Consumer Key lacks required scope	Regenerate key with Read/Write scope
404 Not Found	Category or product ID does not exist	Check the ID
429 Too Many Requests	Rate limit hit during pagination	Wait 2 seconds and retry; reduce per_page to 50
woocommerce_rest_* error in body	WooCommerce validation failure	See message field in response JSON
Batch returns partial errors	Some products failed to update	Inspect the errors array in the batch response

Best Practices

• Always run with dry_run: true first (it's the default). Confirm the preview before going live.
• Export a WooCommerce product CSV backup before large bulk updates (WooCommerce → Products → Export).
• Use category_id or tag_id to narrow scope — avoid updating entire catalogs in a single run.
• Set min_price to your cost floor to avoid pricing products below cost.
• For sale prices: only set apply_to_sale_price: true intentionally — sale prices usually need separate management.