Introducing the New Collections API (2026-07) — Developer Preview

Products and Orders APIs
1

Hey everyone! Diana here from the Merchandising product team.

We’re shipping the biggest change to the Collections API in years, and we’re putting it in developers’ hands first. The new model is available now in the 2026-07 release candidate, ahead of the redesigned merchant admin experience that rolls out in the coming weeks.

What’s new

Collections are no longer split into “smart” and “custom.” In 2026-07, every collection is made of one or more product group sources, and a single collection can combine them:

  • CollectionConditionsSource — typed conditions, manual inclusions and exclusions, and optional variant targeting.
  • CollectionSubCollectionSource — membership inherited from another collection.

This replaces the smart/custom distinction and the stringly-typed ruleSet with a composable, strongly-typed model: one collection, multiple group sources, conditions and curated picks working together.

What you can build

  • Variant-accurate storefronts — include only the red variants in a “Valentine’s Red” collection so swatches, prices, and filters stay correct (targetType: VARIANTS).
  • Self-maintaining collections — include and exclude on the same source, so collections like “Product under $100 except preorders” stays current automatically.
  • Nested navigation — build an “Activewear” parent from sub-collections “Leggings", “Tops” and “Shorts” that updates itself (CollectionSubCollectionSource).
  • Operational collections — target “XS and XXL” variants for an automatic discount and check ProductVariant.inCollections in Functions, no manual product lists.
  • App sources — publish your app’s signal as a first-class source merchants add to their collections (collectionConditionsSourcesByApp).

What you need to know

Action required: API versions older than 2026-07 will return filtered results for collections with new features. Existing smart and manual collections auto-convert to single-source equivalents and keep returning data on older versions. Update your app to 2026-07 and adopt the sources model before the merchant rollout in the coming weeks, so you stay in sync with every collection merchants create.

  • Collection.ruleSet, CollectionInput, collectionAddProducts / collectionAddProductsV2/ collectionRemoveProducts, collectionsToJoin / collectionsToLeave, and collectionRulesConditions are deprecated.
  • In Functions, use ProductVariant.inAnyCollection / inCollections — the Product-level fields are deprecated and return incorrect results for variant-scoped collections.

Review Collection API reference to get started.

We’d love your feedback

As you’re discovering the new API, we’d love questions or feedback. Is anything missing that blocks your apps’ use case? How’s the migration from ruleSet / CollectionInput to sources?

Drop your questions and feedback in this thread — we’re checking in regularly.

3

This is fantastic! How will variant-specific collections be accessible on the storefront (liquid/storefront api) - as I can’t see any changes there just yet!

4

@diana_cheptene can you also share the link of the documentation regarding webhooks for this new unified collections resource? What will be the trigger and payload?

5

Best new feature of Editions is the last link on the page :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Really interested in how this will work in the storefront and the Liquid API. Everything from sub collections to variant-specific collections.

Also, guess this opens up for way better breadcrumbs? :eyes:

6

collection on variant level with access to functions is great news.