The page is divided into six sections: Category, Text Content, Product Images, Tags & Organization, Apply Rules To, and Scoring Weights. A Test Product Listing Evaluation tool sits at the bottom.
Category
Controls how your Product listing taxonomy is structured and validated.
Catalog Guardrails — Category section
Category Depth
Sets the maximum number of nesting levels allowed in your category structure. The default maximum is 4. Deeper, more precise structures improve AI Agent discovery, but the cap prevents taxonomy that becomes too complex for customers.
Require category custom fields (Default: On)
When enabled, ensures every category has at least one value in its custom data fields. This keeps metafield completeness high across the board.
Accepted Category Types
Defines which Shopify taxonomy categories are valid for your Product listings. Product listings assigned to any category outside this list will be flagged in My Store.
Accepted Category Types — building a multi-level category tree
Click Browse or Search — to find categories from the Shopify taxonomy.
Add a category — to build a multi-level tree up to your configured depth — for example, Electronics → Audio → Audio Components → Audio Amplifiers.
Expand a category — after adding it to see its available metafields and mark any as mandatory.
Click Change — next to any level to swap it for a different category.
Tip Add only the categories you actively use. Avoid top-level verticals you don't sell in, or flagging becomes noisy and loses meaning.
Text Content
Enforce writing style and content length requirements across Product listing descriptions and titles.
Text Content rules — description, title, and image standards
Product Listing Description rules
Prevent ALL CAPS descriptions (Default: On) — Flags any description written entirely in uppercase.
Description cannot be empty (Default: On) — Hard-stops Product listings with no description from passing guardrail checks.
Ensure unique descriptions (Default: On) — Flags a description that is identical to another Product listing's description in your Product catalog.
Check description quality (Default: On) — Alerts you when a Product listing's description text does not appear to match its image content.
Minimum word count (Default: 300) — Descriptions shorter than this value will be flagged as Short Description.
Maximum word count (Default: 2,000) — Descriptions longer than this value will also be flagged.
Note Adjust the minimum and maximum word counts to match your actual standards. Technical Product listings may need more words than simple accessories.
Product Images
Enable image validation (Default: On) Enforces minimum image counts and accessibility (alt-text) standards. Product listings below the image threshold appear as Low Images warnings in My Store.
Tags & Organization
Keeps your tags clean and organised to help customers and AI Agents search effectively.
Tags & Organization and Apply Rules To sections
Enable tag validation (Default: Off) — Turn on to activate tag enforcement. No tag rules apply while this is off.
Usage Limit Threshold (Default: 3) — Warns when a single tag is applied to more Product listings than this number, preventing over-tagging and tag dilution.
Tip Start with tag validation off while you audit your existing tags. Once you know your distribution, set a realistic threshold and turn it on.
Apply Rules To
Choose which Product listings must follow the configured guardrails.
Click Select product statuses.
Choose a scope — such as All Product listings, Published, or Draft. Only matching Product listings are evaluated against the guardrails.
Note Scoping to Published only is useful when you want strict enforcement on live listings while leaving draft work-in-progress Product listings unaffected.
Scoring Weights
Controls how much each quality dimension contributes to the overall Product catalog health score. The three sliders must always sum to 100%.
Scoring Weights — adjust sliders and see the point allocation preview update live
Scoring Weights — adjust sliders and see the point allocation preview update live
Classification (Default: 50%) — Covers Allowed Category, Mandatory Metafields, Category Depth, and Metafield Completeness.
Content Quality (Default: 30%) — Covers Title Format, Description length and quality, and Images.
Tags & Organization (Default: 20%) — Covers Tag Usage standards.
Point allocation preview Below the sliders, the point allocation preview shows exactly how many points each individual check contributes at your current weights. This updates live as you drag the sliders.
Allowed Category
15 pts at default weights
Mandatory Metafields
15 pts
Category Depth
10 pts
Metafield Completeness
10 pts
Title Format
13.5 pts
Description
13.5 pts
Images
10.2 pts
Tag Usage
20 pts
Tip Drag Classification up if category accuracy is your most critical issue. Drag Content Quality up if thin content is your primary concern. The preview updates live.
Test Product Listing Evaluation
Preview how any Product listing will score under your current settings — including unsaved changes — before committing.
Test Product Evaluation — enter a product ID to validate your configuration before saving
Find your Product listing ID — in Shopify admin, it appears at the end of the product URL: admin/products/789012345678.
Paste the numeric ID — into the Test Product Listing Evaluation field.
Click Test — to run the evaluation.
Review the results — which show which guardrails pass or fail and how many points the Product listing earns in each dimension.
Adjust settings if needed — then re-run the test before clicking Save settings.
Tip Test a representative Product listing from each of your major categories before saving, to ensure weights and thresholds behave correctly across different Product listing types.
Recommended Workflow
Follow this sequence when setting up Products Audit for the first time or reviewing an existing configuration.
Open Products Audit — and go to My Store to understand your baseline scores and warnings.
Note the three health scores — and the warning cards.
Open Catalog Guardrails — and work through each section in order: Category → Text Content → Product Images → Tags & Organization → Apply Rules To → Scoring Weights.
Adjust defaults — to match your actual content standards.
Run Test Product Listing Evaluation — on two or three real Product listings to validate your configuration.
Click Save settings.
Return to My Store — and click Refresh scores to see your Product catalog re-evaluated against the new guardrails.
Use the Product Listing Optimization Opportunities table — to assign Fix Now tasks and track progress.
For additional help, reach out to your account team or use the support option inside the app.