Order Status Bulk Update

Purpose

Transition a filtered set of WooCommerce orders from one status to another in bulk. Common uses: mark all processing orders as completed after a fulfillment batch, move stuck pending orders to cancelled, or transition on-hold orders to processing after payment confirmation. Always previews the affected order list before executing.

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 changes order statuses. Status changes trigger WooCommerce hooks (emails, inventory adjustments). Always run with dry_run: true first. Transitioning to completed sends a completion email to customers.

Workflow Steps

Step 1 — Fetch orders matching filters

GET /wp-json/wc/v3/orders
  ?status=<source_status>&per_page=100&page=1
  [&before=<date_before>]
  [&after=<date_after>]
  [&payment_method=<payment_method>]

Extract: id, number, date_created, total, billing.email, payment_method_title

Step 2 — Preview or execute

If dry_run: true: list orders and stop.

If dry_run: false and confirmed, use batch endpoint (groups of 50):

POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/batch
  Body: {
    "update": [
      { "id": <id>, "status": "<target_status>" },
      ...
    ]
  }

If add_note is set, follow with per-order note updates.

API Endpoints Used

GET  /wp-json/wc/v3/orders          — filtered order list
POST /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/batch    — bulk status update
PUT  /wp-json/wc/v3/orders/{id}     — individual note addition

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-order-status-bulk-update     ║
║  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-order-status-bulk-update  ║
║  RECORDS PROCESSED: <n>                  ║
║  OUTPUT: stdout                          ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

COMPLETION (json format):

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

Output Format

Human format: table of affected orders with order number, customer, total, current status → new status.

Error Handling

Best Practices

• Always run with dry_run: true first (the default). Status changes trigger customer emails.
• Use add_note to document the reason for the bulk status change (e.g., "Bulk completed after warehouse confirmation 2025-04-14").
• Process in off-peak hours for large batches — status changes can be resource-intensive on WordPress.