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Product schema overview

The product schema is a standardized format that transforms your Shopify product data into an optimized structure for the search and browse engine.

Catalog scale and limits

Layers has no hard limits on the number of products, variants, or SKUs that can be synced and indexed. The platform is designed to scale with your business and has successfully handled catalogs with millions of SKUs. Whether you have hundreds or millions of products, variants, or SKUs, Layers can accommodate your catalog size without restrictions.

Schema fields

The following table outlines the key fields in the product schema, along with their data types, descriptions, and example values:
You can provide type-hints to Named Tags by using the {key}:{type}:{value} tag format. Supported types: number, boolean, and date.

API response type consistency

The following fields are guaranteed to always be returned as JSON objects (or null) in API responses, never as empty arrays. This ensures type consistency for API consumers and prevents type mismatches in strongly-typed clients:
  • metafields - Always an object or null
  • calculated - Always an object or null
  • named_tags - Always an object or null
  • category - Always an object or null
  • featured_media - Always an object or null
  • first_or_matched_variant - Always an object or null
  • price_range - Always an object or null
When these fields have no data, the API returns {} (empty object) or null, never [] (empty array). The API enforces this behavior at the response level to maintain consistent typing across all endpoints.
Sequential array fields like tags and images are not affected by this enforcement and continue to return as arrays.

Data types and formatting

  • Integer: Whole numbers without decimals.
  • String: Textual data, often used for titles or descriptions.
  • Decimal: Numbers with decimal points, typically used for prices.
  • Array: A list of values, used for tags or features.
  • Boolean: A true or false value, indicating binary states such as availability.

See also