Sushinet

Ruleproof · Tutorial

Your first checkout rule, in five steps

The whole point of Ruleproof is that you never guess: you build a rule in plain English, watch it before it changes a single order, then switch it on. Five steps to your first rule — then every condition, every action and every safeguard, in full.

  1. 1

    Install and open Ruleproof

    Add the app from the Shopify App Store. It opens straight inside your Shopify admin — there is no theme change and nothing to paste anywhere.

    Illustration — where the app lives once installed
    admin.shopify.com / your-store / apps
    Apps
    RuleproofYour rules · Build a rule · Try it on a shopper

    Inside your Shopify admin, not a separate site. No theme edit, and nothing to paste anywhere.

  2. 2

    Write a rule in plain English

    Start a new rule (or a preset like "Block PO Boxes"). Pick the conditions — country, postcode, cart total, weight, product, customer email or currency — from lists, so there are no typos, and the rule reads back as a sentence.

    Illustration — how a rule reads once you have picked its parts
    WhenShipping address kind is a PO Box
    AndCart total is at least 300 USD
    ExceptCustomer email ends with @wholesale.example
    ThenBlock checkout — “We can’t deliver to PO Boxes over $300.”

    Every part is chosen from a list. There is no syntax to get wrong, and the rule reads back to you as a sentence.

  3. 3

    Preview it on a test shopper

    Open the preview and choose one of the built-in test shoppers, or enter a cart and address. The app shows exactly what that buyer would get — the hidden option, or the blocked checkout — before the rule is live.

    Illustration of the outcome, not a screenshot.

  4. 4

    Watch it in monitor mode

    Turn on monitor mode and Ruleproof records what the rule would have done to your real orders — "this would have blocked 12 checkouts last week" — while changing nothing. You go live on evidence from your own traffic.

    Illustration — what monitor mode reports before a rule is live
    124checkouts seen
    12would have been blocked
    0actually changed

    Real traffic from your own store, with nothing altered. If 12 looks wrong, the rule is wrong — and you found out before a customer did.

  5. 5

    Set it live

    Switch the rule on with one click. Pause it, or hit the emergency stop to pause every rule at once, whenever you like — no support ticket to undo anything.

    Illustration — a rule's state, and the one button that undoes everything
    DraftSaved, evaluated in preview, touches nothing real
    LiveRunning at checkout — one click, reversible
    StopPause every rule at once, without a support ticket

    Every rule starts in draft. Nothing you build changes a real checkout until you say so.

How to start from a preset

Thirteen rules ship ready-made, so the common ones are a starting point rather than a blank page.

Open Presets and pick one — block PO Boxes, no cash on delivery on risky orders, free express over a threshold, sell only to selected countries, no same-day after a cutoff, minimum order value, and others. A preset opens as a normal rule with its conditions already filled in, so you can change the postcode list or the threshold before saving. Nothing is applied until you set it live, exactly as with a rule you wrote yourself.

How to add an exception

Most rules need one. “Block PO Boxes — except for wholesale customers” is one rule here, not a rule plus a carve-out you have to remember to keep in step.

Add the exception on the rule itself. It is evaluated the same way as the conditions, and it wins: if the exception matches, the rule does not act, whatever the rest of it says. That is why the illustration in step 2 reads WHEN … AND … EXCEPT … THEN — the exception is part of the sentence, not a second rule cancelling the first.

How to preview a rule before it runs

Open Try it on a shopper, pick one of the built-in test shoppers, or type a cart and address yourself.

The preview shows exactly what that buyer would get — the hidden option, the renamed one, or the blocked checkout — and names the rule that decided it, which matters once you have several that could apply. A preview writes nothing and can be run as often as you like.

How to check what a rule actually did

The Activity page is the record of every decision a live rule made.

Use it to answer the question you will actually be asked — “why couldn't this customer choose express?” — rather than reasoning about it from the rule alone. It is also where monitor mode's findings land before a rule is live, so the same page answers both “what did it do” and “what would it have done”.

How to put a rule on a schedule

A rule can be active only at certain times of day, days of the week, months, or between two dates.

So you can hide same-day delivery after a 12pm cutoff and bring it back the next morning, without remembering to switch anything by hand. Schedules are evaluated in your store's own timezone and stay correct across daylight-saving changes — the part that is easy to get wrong yourself.

How to pause one rule, or all of them

Set a single rule back to draft, or hit the emergency stop.

The emergency stop pauses every rule at once, from one button, with no support ticket and no waiting for us. It is the answer to “something is wrong at checkout and I do not yet know which rule” — stop everything, then work it out. A rule also refuses to save if it can never fire, or would fire on everything, so the two most common mistakes never reach a live checkout at all.

How to tell whether a rule will run at checkout

Shopify limits how much a rule may read while a buyer is checking out. Three conditions do not fit inside that limit, and the app says so on the rule itself.

Illustration — the app telling you where a rule cannot run

This rule will not run at checkout.

The customer’s past order count cannot be read while a buyer is checking out — Shopify caps how much a rule may look at, and this store already uses that budget. This rule works in the preview and in monitoring, but it cannot run at checkout.

Said up front, on the rule itself. The alternative — a rule that saves cleanly and then never fires — is the failure this exists to prevent.

Those three — a product's collection, a product tag, and the customer's past order count — still work in the preview and in monitor mode. Everything else in the reference below runs at checkout.

Reference: everything a rule can be built on

Conditions are picked from lists, grouped the way the builder groups them. Combine as many as you like with and / or, and negate any of them.

Shipping address

  • Postcode
  • Country
  • State or province
  • Address text
  • Street number missing
  • PO Box or parcel locker

Cart and order

  • Cart total
  • Cart weight
  • Number of items
  • Exact number of items
  • Quantity in multiples of N
  • Checkout currency

Products in the cart

  • Product
  • Variant
  • Vendor
  • SKU
  • Subscription or pre-order item
  • All items are subscriptions
  • Gift card
  • Item that needs shipping
  • Item that needs no shipping

Customer

  • Customer email
  • Customer phone
  • Signed in or guest
  • Buyer language

Cross-checks

  • Billing country
  • Billing state or province
  • Billing postcode
  • Billing and shipping countries differ

Reference: everything a rule can do

Six actions. A rule does one of them when its conditions match.

Illustration — what each action changes for the buyer
StandardExpressOvernight

Hide a delivery option

The buyer never sees it, rather than seeing it fail at the last step.

Intl Econ 5–7↓Next business day

Rename a delivery option

Say what it means to your buyer instead of what the carrier calls it.

ExpressStandardOvernight

Reorder delivery options

Put the one you want chosen where it will actually be chosen.

CardCash on deliveryShop Pay

Hide a payment method

For example, cash on delivery above a cart total you set.

Bank transfer↓Pay by invoice

Rename a payment method

The same clarity, one step later in the checkout.

We can’t deliver to PO Boxes.

Block checkout

With a message you write, in each language you sell in.

Want a specific rule?

The checkout-rule guides walk through common ones step by step — hiding cash on delivery, blocking PO Boxes, restricting shipping by country, and more.

Install Ruleproof on Shopify

Read the FAQ · support@sushinet.fyi