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Shopify crawler access

Shopify protects online stores against automated traffic. To that protection, the Wygard crawler looks like any other bot, so Shopify may answer it with a 403, a 429, or a challenge page instead of your real storefront. Wygard then reports status code changes and missing tags that your visitors never see.

To fix this, create a crawler signature in your Shopify admin and add it to Wygard as custom HTTP headers. Shopify recognizes signed requests and lets them through.

The signature expires after 90 days at most

Shopify limits how long a crawler signature stays valid: the longest period you can choose is 90 days (3 months). After that, the HTTP headers stop working and you have to create a new signature. This is how Shopify works, and unfortunately we can't extend or renew the signature for you. Add a reminder to your calendar to renew the headers before the 3 months are up.

Where What you need
Shopify admin Permission to edit Online Store > Preferences
Shopify store A connected domain (the signature is tied to one domain)
Wygard Access to project or website settings

Step 1: Create a signature in Shopify

  1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.
  2. In the Crawler access section, click Create signature.
  3. Enter a descriptive name, for example Wygard monitoring, so you can tell it apart from other signatures later.
  4. Select the connected domain that Wygard monitors.
  5. Choose an expiration period. The maximum is 90 days (3 months).
  6. Click Create.
  7. Copy the Signature-Input and Signature values. You'll paste them into Wygard in the next step.

Lost the values?

You can copy them again at any time from Online Store > Preferences > Crawler access.

Shopify's own documentation for this feature is at Crawling your store.

Step 2: Add the headers to Wygard

Every request needs all three headers below. If one is missing, Shopify treats the request as unsigned.

Header name Value
Signature-Input The Signature-Input value you copied from Shopify
Signature The Signature value you copied from Shopify
Signature-Agent "https://shopify.com"

Keep the quotes in Signature-Agent

The value of Signature-Agent is "https://shopify.com" including the double quotes. Without them, Shopify rejects the signature.

You can add the headers in two places. Both use the same HTTP headers settings form. It starts empty: click + Add HTTP header three times to get three rows, then fill in one header per row, with the name in Header name and its value in Value. The trash icon next to a row removes it.

Use this when you monitor more than one domain, which is the usual case. A Shopify signature works for one domain only, so each Shopify website in Wygard needs its own.

  1. Open the project and go to its websites, for example https://200.wygard.com/projects/20/websites, where 20 is your project ID.
  2. Open the settings of the Shopify website.
  3. In HTTP headers settings, add the three headers.
  4. Click Save changes.

For all projects and websites

Use this only when every site you monitor in Wygard runs on the same Shopify domain.

  1. Go to Project settings.
  2. In HTTP headers settings, add the three headers.
  3. Click Save changes.

Wygard sends these headers with requests to every website in every project.

Which setting wins

Headers set on a website take precedence over the global ones. You can set a global default and override it for individual websites.

Step 3: Check that it works

Wait for the next check, or start one manually, then open the website's results:

  • The Status code test should return the same code your visitors get, typically 200, not 403 or 429.
  • On-page tests such as Canonical or Meta title should find values from your real storefront, not from a challenge page.

If you still see blocked responses, check that:

  • all three headers are present and their names are spelled exactly as above,
  • Signature-Agent includes the double quotes,
  • the signature hasn't expired,
  • the signature was created for the same domain the Wygard website uses (for example www.example.com, not example.myshopify.com).

Renewing an expired signature

A signature lasts 90 days (3 months) at most. Shopify doesn't let you extend it, and we can't do it for you from Wygard either, so when it expires you have to create a new one and replace the old values in Wygard.

Set a calendar reminder before the expiration date

Once the signature expires, Shopify starts blocking the Wygard crawler again and you'll get alerts that look like a broken store. When you create the signature, add a calendar reminder a few days before it expires so you have time to replace it.

To renew:

  1. Create a new signature in Shopify (Step 1).
  2. In Wygard, replace the Signature-Input and Signature values with the new ones. Signature-Agent stays the same.
  3. Click Save changes and check the next results (Step 3).