i want to get a specific staff member id (or at least shop owner id) for a given shop
from a public app which is installed in different stores.
is there an api route for this?
You can query a shop’s account owner ID:
reading shop owner required read_users which is only available for finance embedded shopify apps or Shopify Plus
is this accessible for non-Shopify Plus stores and public apps or is there another way to do it
This is not possible for a public app, as AFAIK the read_users scope is still limited to custom apps even though some of the docs indicate otherwise. The current workaround is to use online access tokens, but that only works for staff users who have actually accessed the app.
See these threads for more details:
Ah, you’re right, Kyle! I thought there was no mention of “custom” in those docs because the scope had opened up to public apps, but I confirmed that’s not actually the case. I think I’ll update those docs to make it clearer.
You can use the online access token to get some information including the email of the person using the app About online access tokens
Shopify POS also gives you the staff member id
Thanks @Paige-Shopify!
FWIW, updating the docs was the whole purpose behind OP’s post here, which was posted back in December of 2025 (@Jivan is my colleague).
I suppose the thread evolved into a feature request, but until something changes on the platform/product side, the docs need to be updated to reflect the current state of things, as it’s clearly confusing both internally and externally