# Playbooks: add Store operations to Piste

> A playbook adds a specialist method to Piste in one install. Store operations checks stock, shipping, returns and the catalogue, and changes nothing in Shopify.

Source: https://www.usepiste.com/docs/playbooks

A playbook is a specialist method you add to Piste in one install: the skills it follows, a few setup questions, and routines that run on a schedule. Piste has one playbook, Store operations, which watches stock, shipping, returns and your catalogue, and changes nothing in your Shopify store. A playbook isn't a second agent: Piste takes on the playbook's skills and rules while it's installed.

## What does Store operations do?

Store operations reads the orders, products, stock and sales reports of a connected [Shopify](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/shopify) store, sizes its advice to how many orders the store takes, and runs three routines. A routine is an [automation](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations) the playbook creates for you.

| Routine | When it runs | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Store morning check | Tuesday to Friday at 8:10 | Best sellers about to run out, paid orders late to ship, risky orders waiting to ship, payments about to lapse and refund spikes. Quiet when all is well; otherwise an alert of 150 words or fewer. |
| Store operations weekly review | Mondays at 8:20 | Days of stock left on your best sellers, a draft reorder list, late and risky orders, returns and why, and slow movers. It publishes the whole review as a [report page](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/report-pages) and posts a digest of 250 words or fewer with the link. It always posts. |
| Catalogue health audit | Monthly on the 1st at 10:15 | Dead stock and the cash in it, sell-through and returns by product, and listings missing images, descriptions, SKUs or stock, with a numbered list of fixes to make in Shopify. |

Times are in your workspace's time zone. A routine's results post in Piste, and also where you read Piste when you install the playbook: your Slack DM with Piste if Slack is connected, otherwise iMessage if you've connected your number. A quiet morning check stays in Piste and isn't sent on. If Shopify's sales reports aren't available to Piste, each routine works from your orders and products alone and says what it couldn't check.

Store operations never:

- changes a product, a price, stock levels or an order in Shopify
- places a reorder with a supplier
- holds, cancels or refunds an order, or contacts a customer
- names a customer in a report

Once it's installed, you can also ask Piste things like "What should I reorder this week?" or "Why are returns up?". In a chat, Piste may offer a [store trigger](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/store-triggers), such as a warning when a best seller runs low; you approve each one, and the routines never create one.

## How do I install Store operations?

### 1. Open Playbooks

In the sidebar, open **Playbooks** ([app.usepiste.com/playbooks](https://app.usepiste.com/playbooks)) and choose Store operations. Until your store is connected, its button reads `Connect Shopify` instead of `Install`.

### 2. Press Install and read the review

Press `Install`. The sheet lists the routines it creates, when each runs once it's on, where each posts, what it will do and what it never does. Press `Continue`.

### 3. Answer the setup questions

There are five questions (below), and each has a default, so you can install without typing anything. Press `Install`.

### 4. Open the playbook

You'll see "Store operations is installed", and each routine runs once now as a preview, which takes about a minute. Press `Open the playbook`. Later, `Manage` on Store operations' page brings you back here.

### 5. Switch on the routines you want

Under Routines, open a routine's preview with Read the preview. When you're happy with what it would post, press `Switch on`. From then on it runs on its schedule.

You can also ask Piste to install it in a chat. Piste shows the same review as an [approval](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/approvals).

### Setup questions

| Question | Default | Allowed | What it sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reorder lead time | 30 days | 1 to 365 days | Days from ordering with your supplier to the stock being on sale. Reorder warnings count back from it. |
| Stock each reorder should buy | 60 days | 7 to 365 days | How many days of sales one reorder should cover once it lands. |
| Ship orders within | 2 days | 1 to 30 days | The working days from order to dispatch you aim for. Orders open longer are reported as late. |
| Dead stock after | 90 days | 30 to 365 days | How long a product in stock can go without a sale before it counts as dead stock. |
| When stock and cash pull apart | Balanced | Don't run out, Balanced, Keep cash free | How much spare stock the reorder list holds. |

To change your answers later, edit them under Your answers on the playbook's page and press `Save answers`. Changes apply from the next run.

## Why does nothing run after I install?

Every routine arrives switched off. Its preview is a dry run: Piste does all the reading and writes its full result, but changes nothing and posts nothing. Each routine's row on the playbook's page shows where it stands:

| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Preparing preview | The preview is running. |
| Preview ready | Read the preview, then switch the routine on. |
| Preview didn't finish | Press `Preview again`, or switch it on as it is. |
| Off | Switched off, with no preview to read. Press `Preview` to see what it would do. |
| On | It runs on its schedule. The row shows its next run and how the last one went: Reported, Quiet or Failed. |
| Can't run | A connection it needs is missing or expired. Its scheduled runs are skipped until you reconnect. |

## How do house rules work?

House rules are your own rules for one playbook, such as a product you never reorder or a day you don't trade. Piste reads them in every routine and chat, and where a house rule disagrees with the playbook's method, the house rule wins. They never lift a limit Piste enforces and never stand in for an approval.

On the playbook's page, under House rules, press `Write house rules` (or `Edit house rules`), write one rule per line, and press `Save house rules`. House rules hold up to 2,000 characters. For example:

```text
Never reorder the Wool Beanie: it's being discontinued.
We don't ship at weekends, so count working days.
Our supplier only takes orders in cases of 50.
```

When you correct Piste the same way a second time, it offers to save the correction as a house rule in your words, and saves it only if you agree and approve the change. House rules apply from the next message, and to each routine from its next run. They stay in place as the playbook is updated.

## How do I pause or remove a playbook?

On the playbook's page:

- `Pause` stops its routines. Each routine keeps its own switch, so `Resume` starts again only the ones that were on. Piste still uses the playbook's skills when you ask.
- `Switch off` on a routine stops just that one. You can also reschedule or pause a routine on the Automations page, like any automation.
- `Remove` asks "Remove Store operations?" first. Its routines are deleted, Piste stops using its skills, your answers and house rules are forgotten, and its run history goes. The chats its runs started stay, any review pages it published stay at their links, and nothing in your Shopify store is touched. You can install it again later.

## How are playbook updates announced?

There's no Update button and no version to pin. Each release updates the playbook's skills, standing instructions and routine instructions, while the routines' names and schedules stay as you installed them. You hear about it once: the next routine's result opens with "What's new in the Store operations playbook:", or you read it under What's new on the playbook's page and press `Got it`. Until then, its card on Playbooks says "new in" with the version.

If you edited a routine's instructions and a release changes that routine too, your version keeps running. The playbook's page says so and lets you choose `Use the playbook's` or `Keep mine`. If a release adds a question that needs an answer, the page shows "A new question needs your answer", and the routines keep running without it until you answer.

## Who can manage a playbook?

Only the workspace owner can install, set up, switch on, pause or remove a playbook, or write its house rules, on its page or in a chat, because a playbook works on the owner's connected accounts. In a chat, only the owner can approve the change. Once it's installed, everyone's conversations with Piste use its skills.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Playbooks available | Store operations |
| What it needs | A connected Shopify store |
| Routines | 3, each arriving switched off with a preview |
| Setup | 5 questions, each with a default, in about a minute |
| House rules | Up to 2,000 characters per playbook |
| Changes to your store | None |
| Who manages it | The workspace owner |

## Related

- [Automations](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations): how routines run, post and pause.
- [Report pages](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/report-pages): where the weekly review is published, and how to share it.
- [Skills](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/skills): your own procedures, which sit beside a playbook's.
- [Store triggers](https://www.usepiste.com/docs/automations/store-triggers): alerts the moment something happens in your store.

## Questions

### Will Store operations change my stock or prices?

No. It reads your Shopify orders, products, stock and sales reports and changes nothing in the store. Reorders, markdowns and listing fixes come to you as drafts and instructions that you carry out yourself.

### Why is nothing running after I installed a playbook?

Every routine arrives switched off. Each one runs once as a preview, which changes nothing and posts nothing, and it runs on its schedule only after you switch it on.

### Does Store operations place orders with my supplier?

No. The weekly review includes a draft reorder list with the numbers behind each line, and you place the order yourself.

### Can I change how a playbook works?

You can change your setup answers at any time, and write house rules of up to 2,000 characters that win over the playbook's own method. Piste keeps the method itself up to date.

### Who can install a playbook?

Only the workspace owner, because a playbook works on the owner's connected accounts.

### What happens when I remove a playbook?

Its routines, your answers, your house rules and its run history are deleted. The chats its runs started and any review pages it published stay, and nothing in your Shopify store is touched.