Shopify Flow “Send Admin API request” — Should the `type` for app-owned metaobjects use `$app:` or the fully qualified `app--{app-id}--{type_name}` format?

Shopify Flow
1

Hi Shopify team/developers,

I’m using an app-owned metaobject:

$app:order_history_log

My app ID is 414917099521, and the definition is:

app--414917099521--order_history_log

When I use Shopify Flow’s “Send Admin API request” with:

"type": "$app:order_history_log"

I get:

No metaobject definition exists for type "app--4655075--order_history_log"

I then tried the fully qualified type:

"type": "app--414917099521--order_history_log"

The definition is found, but I now get:

Not authorized to modify entries of type "app--414917099521--order_history_log"

Could you please confirm:

  1. Why does Shopify Flow resolve $app: to 4655075 instead of my app ID?
  2. Is the fully qualified app--414917099521--order_history_log format supported in Flow?
  3. Can Shopify Flow’s “Send Admin API request” create/update entries in an app-owned metaobject?
  4. If not, does the metaobject need to be merchant-owned for Shopify Flow’s built-in action to create/update entries directly?
  5. What is the recommended approach if we want to keep the metaobject app-owned?
2

App owned metafields/objects can only be interacted with through the Admin API by the actual owning app.

Flow is it’s own separate app with it’s own app ID (thus why $app resolves to a different ID - it’s literally a different app).

However, from my experience using Shopify’s standard Flow actions instead of a custom API request does seem to allow updating app owned metafields as long as they’re set to merchant_read_write access.

Other than this, you’d need to make sure to handle all functionality through your own app if you want to use app-owned, could be in the app itself or maybe with your own custom Flow actions.

3

The other option is to use Send HTTP request instead and use your app’s API key in that action.

4

Thanks, @paul_n and @Brett, for the clarification. This helps explain the Flow app ownership and the recommended approach. I’ll check the Send HTTP request approach and proceed accordingly.