Metafield Writing
Configure how Vantage writes AI readiness scores to your Shopify product metafields
Last updated: 8th September 2026
Metafield Writing
Metafield writing controls whether Vantage writes AI readiness scores back to your Shopify products. When enabled, the audit can save its score and timestamp to product metafields. This does not prove that an external AI service ingested or used those values.
The toggle
The metafield writing toggle is found on the Settings page. It has two states:
- Enabled (default) — After each audit, Vantage writes
vantage.ai_readiness_scoreandvantage.last_optimizedto every audited product - Disabled — Audits still run and scores are still calculated, but this audit step does not write its score/timestamp metafields. Separately approved content proposals and explicit alt-text saves are not disabled by this setting
Metafield writing is enabled by default. If you're just exploring Vantage and don't want scores written to your products yet, turn this off before your first sync.
What gets written
When metafield writing is enabled, two metafields are written per product:
| Metafield | Type | Example value |
|---|---|---|
vantage.ai_readiness_score | number_integer | 78 |
vantage.last_optimized | date_time | 2026-06-06T14:30:00Z |
These metafields appear in your Shopify admin under each product's metafields section.
How writes are sent
After an audit, Vantage writes the two metafields for each scored product using Shopify's metafieldsSet mutation — one mutation per product, setting both fields together as an idempotent upsert. Writes only run for shops that have metafield writing enabled.
Metafield ownership
Vantage registers app-owned definitions using the $app:vantage namespace identifier. Shopify manages their access rules. Inspect the actual product's values when checking a write; the presence of a definition alone does not prove a value was saved.
External visibility
Metafield access settings alone do not prove ingestion, ranking or recommendations by an external AI service. Vantage does not verify such distribution or measure external AI visibility. Its readiness score is an internal product-data assessment.
When to disable metafield writing
You might want to disable metafield writing if:
- You're evaluating Vantage and don't want to write data to products yet
- You have concerns about metafield usage in your storefront theme
- You want to run audits for internal review without any external data changes
Even with metafield writing disabled, Vantage still calculates and displays scores in the app. You can review everything internally and enable writing once you're ready.
Troubleshooting
If metafields aren't appearing on your products after enabling writing:
- Verify the toggle is set to Enabled on the Settings page
- Trigger a new catalog sync — metafields are written after each audit cycle
- Check the product in Shopify admin under the Metafields section
- If metafield definitions are missing, try reinstalling the app to re-register them
For more help, see Metafield Issues.