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

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

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.