Bulk Order Notes

Purpose

Append an order note — either private (staff-only) or customer-visible — to a filtered set of WooCommerce orders. Useful for documenting batch fulfillment actions, adding tracking information templates, or communicating delays to customers on affected orders.

Prerequisites

• WooCommerce store with REST API enabled
• Consumer Key with Read/Write scope
• Minimum WooCommerce version: 3.5.0

Parameters

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

Step 3 adds notes to orders. If customer_note: true, customers receive an email notification for each note added. Always run with dry_run: true first to confirm the affected order count before triggering customer emails.

Workflow Steps

Step 1 — Fetch filtered orders

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders
  ?per_page=100&page=1
  [&status=<filter_status>]
  [&after=<filter_date_after>]
  [&before=<filter_date_before>]
  [&payment_method=<filter_payment_method>]

Extract: id, number, billing.email

Step 2 — Preview or execute

If dry_run: true: list orders and stop.

If dry_run: false and confirmed:

POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}/notes
  Body: {
    "note": "<note>",
    "customer_note": <customer_note>
  }

Sequentially per order. Emit progress after every 20.

API Endpoints Used

GET   /wp-json/wc/v3/orders            — filtered order list
POST  /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}/notes — create note on each order

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-order-notes             ║
║  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-order-notes          ║
║  RECORDS PROCESSED: <n>                  ║
║  OUTPUT: stdout                          ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

COMPLETION (json format):

{
  "skill": "woo-bulk-order-notes",
  "store": "<store_url>",
  "completed_at": "<ISO-8601>",
  "records_processed": <n>,
  "output_file": null,
  "dry_run": <bool>
}

Output Format

Human format: count of orders to receive notes, first 10 order numbers, and the note text to be added.

Error Handling

Best Practices

• Always run with dry_run: true first. customer_note: true triggers customer emails for every order.
• Use private notes (customer_note: false) for internal documentation and customer notes only for communications.
• Include the date and operator name in the note for audit trail (e.g., "Fulfillment batch 2025-04-14 — dispatched via DHL").