Get fulfillmentOrders with committed backorder inventory and trigger easily?

Fulfillment & Inventory
,
1

When using the “Continue Selling When Out of Stock” checkbox on a variant. Is there any programmatic way to:

1.) Notify me when more on hand inventory lands from an external system?
2.) Get me all the fulfillmentOrders containing the sku that just came back into stock so I can submit them or remove the fulfillment hold on them? I know I can loop through them all, but was wondering if there was a more convenient way.

2

Hi @PMcDougle_Rothys

I used the Dev MCP to see what recommendations it would provide for this, and this is what it generated. Make sure to test everything before adding to prod:

Handle restock notifications and fulfillment orders (Continue selling when out of stock)

1) Get notified when on‑hand inventory lands

  • Use a webhook on topic: INVENTORY_LEVELS_UPDATE.
  • Optional filter: narrow by inventory_item_id and/or location_id.
  • Detect “restock” app-side by comparing new available vs your last seen value (no built-in “crossed from <=0 to >0” filter).

Validated GraphQL:

mutation CreateInventoryLevelUpdateWebhook($callback: String!) {
  webhookSubscriptionCreate(
    topic: INVENTORY_LEVELS_UPDATE
    webhookSubscription: { uri: $callback, format: JSON }
  ) {
    webhookSubscription { id topic uri }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Note: “Continue selling when out of stock” is ProductVariant.inventoryPolicy = CONTINUE; it doesn’t change how you’re notified—use inventory level webhooks.

2) Fetch fulfillmentOrders for the SKU that just restocked

  • Direct (fastest): query fulfillmentOrders using search syntax
    Example query: sku:YOUR-SKU status:OPEN (optionally add assigned_location_id:gid://shopify/Location/...)
  • Only on hold: use manualHoldsFulfillmentOrders(query: "sku:YOUR-SKU")
  • Fallback: query orders then read their fulfillmentOrders
    Example query: fulfillment_status:unfulfilled AND sku:YOUR-SKU

Validated GraphQL:

A) Direct fulfillmentOrders by SKU

query FulfillmentOrdersBySku($first: Int!, $query: String!) {
  fulfillmentOrders(first: $first, query: $query) {
    nodes {
      id
      status
      order { id name }
      lineItems(first: 10) { nodes { id sku remainingQuantity } }
    }
  }
}

B) Only those on hold

query ManualHoldsFulfillmentOrdersBySku($first: Int!, $query: String!) {
  manualHoldsFulfillmentOrders(first: $first, query: $query) {
    nodes {
      id
      status
      fulfillmentHolds { id reason }
      lineItems(first: 10) { nodes { id sku remainingQuantity } }
    }
  }
}

C) Orders → fulfillmentOrders fallback

query OrdersBySkuUnfulfilled($first: Int!, $query: String!) {
  orders(first: $first, query: $query) {
    nodes {
      id
      name
      fulfillmentOrders(first: 10) {
        nodes {
          id
          status
          lineItems(first: 10) { nodes { id sku remainingQuantity } }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Act on the returned fulfillmentOrders

Remove holds

mutation ReleaseHold($id: ID!) {
  fulfillmentOrderReleaseHold(id: $id) {
    fulfillmentOrder { id status }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Request fulfillment (third‑party service)

mutation SubmitFulfillmentRequest($id: ID!, $message: String) {
  fulfillmentOrderSubmitFulfillmentRequest(id: $id, message: $message) {
    originalFulfillmentOrder { id requestStatus }
    submittedFulfillmentOrder { id requestStatus }
    unsubmittedFulfillmentOrder { id requestStatus }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Merchant‑managed fulfillment

mutation FulfillmentCreate($input: FulfillmentInput!) {
  fulfillmentCreate(fulfillment: $input) {
    fulfillment { id status }
    userErrors { field message }
  }
}

Docs

Info on how to use the Dev MCP yourself for more personalised responses: Meet Shopify Dev Assistant: Build Shopify Apps Faster Than Ever (2025) - Shopify Ireland