Actions

In Mechanic, an action is an instruction for performing work that has an effect. Actions are generated by tasks, in response to events. Each action has a type, specifying the class of operation to be performed, and options, providing specifics about what that operation will do.

Actions are defined by tasks using action objects, which are simple JSON objects specifying an action's type and options. Action objects can be constructed using the action tag.

In Mechanic, actions are performed after their originating task run concludes. Actions are not performed inline during the task's Liquid rendering.

To inspect and respond to the results of an HTTP action, add a task subscription to mechanic/actions/perform, allowing the action to re-invoke the task with the action result data.

Learn more: Responding to action results

Action types

An action type determines the class of operation to be performed. While actions may vary greatly, there are only a few action types.

Action	Purpose
Cache	Performing operations on the store's Mechanic cache
Echo	Debugging; displays the options that it is provided, with no side-effects
Email	Sending transactional email
Event	Generating custom user events
Files	Generating files of various types, storing them at a temporary Mechanic-provided URL
FTP	Performing FTP file uploads and downloads
HTTP	Performing HTTP requests

Integrations

Mechanic maintains a set of integration actions, offering first-class support for several external services.

Action	Integrated service	Purpose
Flow	Shopify Flow	Sending customer, order, product, and general triggers to Shopify Flow
Shopify	Shopify Admin API	Sending requests to the Shopify Admin API, supporting both REST and GraphQL
Report Toaster	Report Toaster	Requesting reports from Report Toaster, or updating data within Report Toaster