Sidekick app extension tools fail only when the merchant is on my app's own admin page but works everywhere else

[Md_Maruf_Ahmed]

Hey folks,

We’re building a Sidekick app extension (tool extension) for our app — a ui_extension targeting admin.app.tools.data, API version 2025-10. It exposes a few tools that return the store’s SEO data to Sidekick.

After more digging, I’ve narrowed it to a very specific trigger:

Sidekick works fine when the merchant is on any normal admin page (e.g. a product page, Home). It fails only when the merchant is currently inside our own app’s embedded admin page and opens Sidekick / starts a new conversation.

When it fails, Sidekick shows:

“Unfortunately, [App] ran into a technical issue and couldn’t process the response right now.”

Key detail: in both cases our tool requests succeed. Our logs show the app extension tool requests returning HTTP 200 with the expected response payload — including the failing case where the merchant is on our app page. So our backend responds correctly; the failure happens downstream, after the tool returns, and only in this one context.

Repro

1. Open the admin on a product page (or any page that isn’t our app) → open Sidekick → ask a question that hits our tools → works, full response renders.

2. Navigate into our app’s embedded page → open Sidekick → start a new conversation → ask the same question → “ran into a technical issue”.

Details

• Extension type: ui_extension, target admin.app.tools.data
• API version: 2025-10
• Our logs: tool requests return 200 + correct payload in both contexts
• Fails only when the active admin surface is our own app’s embedded page

Questions

1. Is there a known interaction when Sidekick is invoked while the merchant is inside the same app that owns the tool extension? Different execution context, App Bridge conflict, or session/auth handling?
2. Given that our tool returns 200 with valid data, what happens after the tool response that could differ in this context and cause Sidekick to discard a response it otherwise accepts?
3. Where can we see the actual underlying error for the failed Sidekick tool call? The merchant-facing message is generic — is there a dev log/request id we can pull?

Any pointers appreciated. Happy to share request ids or a minimal repro.

Thanks!

[Md_Maruf_Ahmed]

Quick correction on my original post: I’m not fully confident in the specifics I described above, so please disregard the detailed claims about when it does and doesn’t work.

To keep it simple: we’re implementing the new Sidekick app extension and occasionally Sidekick shows the merchant a generic “couldn’t process the response” message. We’re still narrowing down exactly when it happens and haven’t confirmed the cause yet.

What would really help:

1. Where can we see the underlying error behind that generic message?
2. Any known issues or gotchas with Sidekick tool extensions on 2025-10?

Happy to share extension config and request/response samples. Thanks!

[Liam-Shopify]

Hi @Md_Maruf_Ahmed

Thanks for flagging this, our team are looking into this now. Will report back with an update asap.

[Md_Maruf_Ahmed]

Hi @Liam-Shopify, any update on this? Happy to share extension config or sample request/response payloads if that helps. Thanks!