Shopify Blog Writer

Shopify Blog Writer

An end-to-end Shopify blog pipeline plugin — draft posts from an Excel tracker with detailed content briefs, generate AI featured images, and upload everything to your store.

What It Does

• Draft blog posts from an Excel tracker with full content briefs (target keywords, hidden intent, key arguments, recommended structure)
• Generate photorealistic featured images using AI (Nano Banana 2 via OpenRouter)
• Upload articles with images to your Shopify store via the Admin API
• Track progress in an Excel spreadsheet with automatic status updates

Architecture

This plugin uses the right component type for each job:

Component	Type	Purpose
brand-setup	Skill	Complete plugin setup — company info, credentials, tracker, product docs
company-info	Skill	Brand knowledge — product catalog, website URL, brand voice guidelines
blog-drafting	Skill	Writing expertise — SEO rules, format templates, content brief interpretation
blog-pipeline	Command	Orchestrator — reads tracker, coordinates drafting/image/upload, updates status
image-generator	Agent	Autonomous image creation — analyzes blog, crafts prompt, calls API
shopify-uploader	Agent	Autonomous upload — assembles payload, pushes to Shopify API

Three Python scripts handle all deterministic work (API calls, Excel read/write):

Script	What It Does
scripts/read_tracker.py	Read next eligible row, update status, mark done
scripts/generate_image.py	Call OpenRouter API, extract base64 PNG, save to disk
scripts/upload_to_shopify.py	Authenticate with Shopify, upload article with image and SEO metadata

Usage

Run the Blog Pipeline

The main way to use this plugin. Add rows to your Excel tracker, then run:

• /blog-pipeline — process the next pending blog
• /blog-pipeline all — process all pending blogs sequentially
• /blog-pipeline 3 — process 3 blogs from the queue

The pipeline reads from Blog Articles/blog-tracker.xlsx, picks the next row by Publishing Priority, drafts the post, generates a featured image, uploads to Shopify, and marks the row as done.

Write a Blog Post (standalone)

Ask Claude to write a blog post and it will load the company-info and blog-drafting skills automatically:

• "Write a blog post about our new product launch"
• "Draft a Shopify blog about choosing the right product for beginners"

Generate a Featured Image (standalone)

Ask Claude to generate a featured image and the image-generator agent handles it:

• "Generate a featured image for this blog post"
• "Create a hero image for the latest article"

Upload to Shopify (standalone)

Ask Claude to upload and the shopify-uploader agent handles it:

• "Upload this blog post to Shopify"
• "Push this article to the store"

The Excel Tracker

The pipeline is driven by Blog Articles/blog-tracker.xlsx. Each row is a blog post.

Core Columns

Column	Description
#	Row number
Title	Blog post title
Author	Author name
Length	short / standard / medium-form / long-form
Status	planned / pending / in-progress / done
Shopify ID	Article ID (filled by pipeline)
Shopify URL	URL handle (filled by pipeline)
Completed Date	Date processed (filled by pipeline)

Content Brief Columns (optional)

Column	Description
Format	Comparison, Ranked list, How-to guide, Topic guide
Target Keyword	Primary and secondary SEO keywords (separated by " / ")
Gap Type	Content gap: Competitive, Audience, Depth, Timing
Strategic Rationale	Why this article matters for the brand
Hidden Intent	The emotional undercurrent driving the searcher
Key Arguments	Mandatory talking points (must all appear in the article)
Product Tie-In	Which products and protocol bundles to feature
Recommended Word Count	Target word count (overrides Length if both present)
Recommended Structure	Structural blueprint for the article
Publishing Priority	Numeric priority (1 = publish first)

Adding New Blog Ideas

Add a row with at minimum: Title, Author, and Status = pending or planned. The content brief columns are optional but produce much better results when filled in.

Setup

First-Time Setup (required)

Run the complete setup by saying:

• "Set up my brand" or "Configure the plugin" or "Initialize the blog writer"

This walks you through everything in one go:

1. Company & Products — your brand name, website URL, and product catalog
2. Brand Voice — tone, audience, language style, differentiators
3. Credentials — Shopify API keys and OpenRouter API key (saved to .env)
4. Blog Tracker — creates or locates your blog-tracker.xlsx with all 18 columns
5. Product Documents — identifies dossiers, spec sheets, or reference files in your workspace

After setup, the plugin writes a configured company-info skill and a .env file — everything is ready to run /blog-pipeline immediately.

See examples/beme-company-info.md for what a fully configured company-info looks like.

To update settings later, just say "update my brand setup" — you can change individual fields without redoing everything.

Manual Setup (alternative)

If you prefer to configure things by hand:

1. Edit skills/company-info/SKILL.md directly (replace the [TODO] markers)
2. Create a .env file in your workspace folder:

   SHOPIFY_STORE_URL=yourstore.myshopify.com
   SHOPIFY_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id
   SHOPIFY_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret
   OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-your-key-here
   

3. Create or locate your blog-tracker.xlsx

Where to get credentials:

• Shopify: partners.shopify.com → your app → Settings (needs write_content scope)
• OpenRouter: openrouter.ai → Settings → API Keys

Dependencies

The scripts use only Python standard library modules (urllib.request, json, base64, pathlib, argparse). The only external dependency is openpyxl for Excel file handling:

pip install openpyxl