🔍 Overview
When you connect Shopify to OTTO through Pipedream, you create a Shopify app that gives OTTO permission to read and update parts of your store. These permissions are called Admin API scopes. If a scope is missing, OTTO cannot apply some SEO changes. If you grant too many, you give access you may not need. This article lists the scopes we recommend for full SEO functionality and explains how to enable them.
📋 Recommended Scopes for Full SEO Functionality
For product metadata, page content, and structured data, enable the following scopes. You can paste this comma-separated list into any field that accepts one:
read_products,write_products,read_product_listings,read_content,write_content,read_online_store_pages,write_online_store_pages,read_themes,write_themes,read_files,write_files,read_metaobjects,write_metaobjects,read_online_store_navigation,write_online_store_navigation,read_locales,read_translations,write_translations
Please note that Shopify occasionally renames or adds scopes, so the list inside your OTTO setup screen is always the most current. If the two differ, follow the setup screen.
🧩 What Each Scope Group Does
- Products (read_products, write_products, read_product_listings): lets OTTO read and update product titles, descriptions, SEO titles, meta descriptions, image alt text, and product metafields.
- Content and pages (read_content, write_content, read_online_store_pages, write_online_store_pages): lets OTTO update page content, blog posts, and the SEO fields on them.
- Themes (read_themes, write_themes): lets OTTO add structured data (schema markup) and other on-page elements to your theme files.
- Files (read_files, write_files): lets OTTO work with images and other files, such as updating image details.
- Metaobjects (read_metaobjects, write_metaobjects): lets OTTO read and write custom content structures that some themes use for SEO data.
- Navigation (read_online_store_navigation, write_online_store_navigation): lets OTTO manage URL redirects and menu links, which helps fix broken pages.
- Languages (read_locales, read_translations, write_translations): lets OTTO handle SEO content on multilingual stores. Skip these if your store uses a single language.
⚙️ How to Enable the Scopes
- In your Shopify admin, open Settings, then Apps and sales channels.
- Open the area for developing or building apps and create a new app. Shopify has been moving app creation to its Dev Dashboard, so the menu names may differ slightly for your store.
- Open the app's Admin API configuration.
- Select each scope from the list above. You can use the search box to find them quickly.
- Save the configuration and install the app on your store.
- Copy the Admin API access token. Shopify usually shows it only once, so store it somewhere safe.
- In Pipedream, connect your Shopify account using your store name and the access token, then finish the connection in OTTO.
🔄 Changing Scopes After Setup
If you need to add or remove a scope later, update the scopes in your Shopify app and reinstall or re-approve the app so the change takes effect. Then reconnect or refresh the Shopify account in Pipedream. Shopify does not apply new scopes to an existing access token until the update is approved.
🛡️ Security Tips
- Never share your access token in public places or screenshots.
- If you think a token has been exposed, rotate it in Shopify and update it in Pipedream.
- If you do not need a feature, such as translations, leave those scopes off.
🧯 Troubleshooting
- OTTO cannot update product SEO fields: check that write_products is enabled and the app has been reinstalled after any scope change.
- Structured data is not appearing: confirm read_themes and write_themes are enabled.
- Page or blog changes are not applied: confirm write_content and write_online_store_pages are enabled.
- Redirects are not being created: confirm write_online_store_navigation is enabled.
- Connection fails in Pipedream: check that the store name is correct and that you copied the full access token without extra spaces.
💬 Need Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.