---
title: "What to ask before you commit to a Shopify Function"
summary: "Discovery questions that separate a weekend-scoped Function from an app-shaped money pit — constraints first."
publishedAt: "2026-07-10"
status: published
tags:
  - shopify-functions
  - scoping
description: "Judgment-first discovery questions before shipping a Shopify Function or Cart Transform."
softCta: true
contentKind: judgment
---

Most Function tickets fail in discovery, not in the WASM binary. The expensive mistake is treating a discount or cart shape as a theme-script problem when the failure modes live in checkout, admin orders, and determined shoppers.

## Start with the failure mode

Ask what already broke. Stacking discounts, gift lines, B2B carts, and mid-campaign CAP changes are not edge cases — they are the job. If the answer is “the app just needs to stop dying,” pause: you may be buying a Function that still has to express the same messy rule set.

## Constraints before recipes

Before anyone pastes a sample `run` handler, pin:

1. **What is the exact CAP or lock rule** — and who can change it mid-campaign?
2. **Where must the rule survive** — storefront only, or admin orders and edits too?
3. **What is explicitly out of scope** for a weekend pilot?

Public notes stop at framing. The production pattern — white-label, under NDA — belongs in paid work.

> Public notes show judgment. Paid engagement gets the pattern.

## Soft path

If you already know the ticket shape and need someone who has shipped this class of work on Plus storefronts, the hire surface is `/work` — not another tutorial mill.