Make creating WooCommerce shop sites easy with Studio Code by youknowriad · Pull Request #3741 · Automattic/studio

youknowriad · 2026-06-09T11:19:52Z

Related issues

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How AI was used in this PR

Built with Claude Code. The skill/prompt changes were driven by analyzing real Studio Code session transcripts of an agent repeatedly failing to build a proper shop ("MyPet") — each fix targets a specific failure observed in those transcripts (trigger never firing, then firing but misclassifying the shop as informational, then the cart link never landing). All changes were reviewed by the author.

Proposed Changes

When a user asks Studio Code to build a shop, the agent used to produce a static catalog mockup — no WooCommerce, no products, no cart — even for an explicit "pet shop." This makes ecommerce the reliable default and gives the agent a complete happy path for standing up a real store.

A shop/store request is now treated as ecommerce by default (unless the user says otherwise). The agent provisions WooCommerce, turns off the "Coming soon" placeholder, creates products relevant to the shop's niche with real imported images, and adds a cart (mini-cart) to the header.
The site planning step now commits to a "Functionality & plugins" decision up front, so plugin needs are decided while gathering the spec rather than being skipped mid-build.
Design verification now covers every page — including the WooCommerce pages (Shop, Cart, Checkout) — while only iterating on the home page, so secondary pages get checked without inflating build time.
The Skill tool call renders as a single compact row in the chat transcript instead of dumping the full skill body, which keeps the conversation readable as the number of skills grows.

Testing Instructions

npm run cli:build
In Studio Code, prompt: "Build a small pet shop site called MyPet, keep it small, only 2-3 pages. I want to sell dog and cat products."
Verify the agent: installs/activates WooCommerce, creates several products (each with an image), disables the "Coming soon" page, and adds a cart link to the header.
Verify visual-polish runs across all pages (Home, Shop, Cart, etc.) but only loops on the home page.
Optional — run the new eval: npm run eval (look for the woocommerce-shop-setup case).

Pre-merge Checklist

Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?
Logic verified against real agent session transcripts; minimal eval added.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

wpmobilebot · 2026-06-09T11:45:45Z

📊 Performance Test Results

Comparing e5393f8 vs trunk

app-size

Metric	trunk	`e5393f8`	Diff	Change
App Size (Mac)	1384.39 MB	1384.39 MB	0.00 MB	⚪ 0.0%

site-editor

Metric	trunk	`e5393f8`	Diff	Change
load	1639 ms	1698 ms	+59 ms	🔴 3.6%

site-startup

Metric	trunk	`e5393f8`	Diff	Change
siteCreation	9083 ms	9068 ms	15 ms	⚪ 0.0%
siteStartup	4495 ms	4400 ms	95 ms	🟢 -2.1%

Results are median values from multiple test runs.

Legend: 🟢 Improvement (faster) | 🔴 Regression (slower) | ⚪ No change (<50ms diff)

Teach the Studio Code agent to reliably build real ecommerce stores when a user asks for a shop, instead of producing a static catalog mockup. - Add a WooCommerce runbook to the plugin-recommendations skill: treat a shop/store request as ecommerce by default, install WooCommerce, disable "Coming soon" mode, create contextual products with imported images, and add a mini-cart to the header. - Have the site-spec summary commit to a "Functionality & plugins" line so the plugin decision happens up front rather than being skipped. - Polish every page (user + WooCommerce), looping only the home page. - Render the Skill tool call as a single compact row in the transcript. - Add a minimal eval asserting a shop request installs WooCommerce and creates products. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

The agent was skipping the site-spec skill when a build prompt already provided the site name, which meant the "Functionality & plugins" decision (and thus WooCommerce setup for shop requests) never happened. Make loading site-spec unconditional for new-site builds, and clarify that skipping discovery only skips the questions — the site spec is still produced. Verified with the woocommerce-shop-setup eval, which now passes: the agent loads site-spec, installs WooCommerce, and creates products. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

The agent sometimes read "small" as a signal to skip WooCommerce. Make explicit that size/scope words ("small", "simple", "just a few pages") describe how big the site is, not whether it sells - a small shop is still a shop and still gets WooCommerce. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

sejas

Nice! Thanks for improving the creation of WooCommerce websites.
I tested it by running npm run eval -- --filter-pattern "shop request sets up WooCommerce" and also npm run cli:build && node apps/cli/dist/cli/main.mjs code with the following prompt: Create a small shop of surfing boards top brands, keep it small only 2 pages. The name of the shop is CanarySurf

The shop looked good and it contained 4 products.

The eval failed to install WooCommerce and create the products. It seems we might need to tweak the skill description a bit more.

sejas · 2026-06-09T12:04:49Z

+  # Regression: a "shop"/"store" request must set up WooCommerce WITH products,
+  # even when framed with scope/style qualifiers ("small", "for inspiration")


youknowriad · 2026-06-09T14:16:01Z

I think the latest skill update might fix that eval issue.

The renderer tweak to collapse the Skill tool call to a single row did not have the intended effect, so revert it and leave tool-result rendering as-is. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

sejas · 2026-06-09T14:31:28Z

Yes! It passed correctly after latest changes. Thank you!

sejas

Working great!

lezama · 2026-06-09T14:36:27Z

+wp_cli option delete _transient__wc_activation_redirect
+```
+
+3. Configure store basics. Match the currency and base location to the user's context when known, otherwise use sensible defaults. Also turn off "Coming soon" mode, which fresh WooCommerce installs enable by default - otherwise the storefront shows a "Something big is brewing! Our store is in the works and will be launching soon!" placeholder instead of the real site:


otherwise the storefront shows a "Something big is brewing! Our store is in the works and will be launching soon!" placeholder instead of the real site:

is this needed?

The WooCommerce pages were phrased as an illustrative "such as" example, so the agent could treat the single-product/Cart/Checkout pages as optional. Make them a firm checklist (Shop, single-product, Cart, Checkout, My Account) so every storefront page gets polished. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Drop the verbatim placeholder message from the "Coming soon" step; the instruction to disable it is enough. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

youknowriad · 2026-06-09T19:23:18Z

The unit test failure seems like the one being worked on separately and failing on trunk. So I'm merging this.

github-actions Bot assigned youknowriad Jun 9, 2026

youknowriad requested review from lezama and sejas June 9, 2026 11:38

youknowriad and others added 2 commits June 9, 2026 15:44

youknowriad force-pushed the claude/keen-mestorf-c91651 branch from 71b9131 to ae10111 Compare June 9, 2026 13:44

sejas reviewed Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

Revert compact Skill-row rendering change

9123fbf

The renderer tweak to collapse the Skill tool call to a single row did not have the intended effect, so revert it and leave tool-result rendering as-is. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

sejas approved these changes Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

lezama reviewed Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

lezama approved these changes Jun 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

youknowriad and others added 2 commits June 9, 2026 16:55

Trim Coming soon note in WooCommerce runbook

e5393f8

Drop the verbatim placeholder message from the "Coming soon" step; the instruction to disable it is enough. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

youknowriad merged commit 5aa584b into trunk Jun 9, 2026
10 of 11 checks passed

youknowriad deleted the claude/keen-mestorf-c91651 branch June 9, 2026 19:23

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Make creating WooCommerce shop sites easy with Studio Code - #3741

Make creating WooCommerce shop sites easy with Studio Code#3741
youknowriad merged 6 commits into
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		# Regression: a "shop"/"store" request must set up WooCommerce WITH products,
		# even when framed with scope/style qualifiers ("small", "for inspiration")

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youknowriad commented Jun 9, 2026

Related issues

How AI was used in this PR

Proposed Changes

Testing Instructions

Pre-merge Checklist

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📊 Performance Test Results

app-size

site-editor

site-startup

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