The statuses
| Status | At checkout |
|---|---|
| Activated | Running |
| Anything else | Saved, but inert |
That is the whole model. There is no scheduling and no partial rollout — a rule is either live or it is not.
Pausing instead of deleting
Toggling a rule to Draft is the safe way to take it out of service. It stops applying immediately, stays in the list, and can be switched back on without rebuilding.
Reach for Draft when you are:
- Testing whether a rule is the cause of odd checkout behaviour
- Running a promotion that only applies for a few weeks
- Freeing a slot against Shopify’s 25-customization ceiling
Isolating a problem
When something at checkout looks wrong and several rules could be responsible, toggle them to Draft one at a time and reload checkout between each. Faster than reading every rule, and it does not risk losing any of them.
Deleting
Permanent, with one confirmation. No archive, no undo.
Export the rule first if there is any chance you will want it back — a JSON file costs nothing to keep and re-imports in seconds.
Testing after a status change
Always reload. Activating, pausing and deleting all take effect immediately for new checkouts, but a tab opened beforehand keeps the options it loaded with. Testing against a stale page is the most common reason a status change looks like it did nothing.