Availability rules

An availability rule controls whether products matching a tag can be purchased. It applies to matching offers, new and existing, as each product syncs: read How catalog rules work first if you have not.

Availability rules match on tags only. A rule keyed by vendor is accepted and stored, but has no effect.

What the rule does

Availability is purchasability only. A rule with available set to false makes every matching product unpurchasable: the offer's status becomes unavailable and every SKU under it follows. The products stay visible in the catalog and can still be browsed. The rule changes what a shopper can do, not what a shopper can see.

available: true is not the same as removing the rule. It forces matching products to be purchasable even where they otherwise would not be, such as draft products, products hidden on the merchant's platform, or products another availability rule marks unavailable. A product matching one rule set to true and another set to false ends up purchasable. SKUs with tracked inventory and no stock still show as out of stock.

To return matching products to their normal status, delete the rule.

Every rule states its effect explicitly

There is no neutral availability rule. A rule either forces matching products to be purchasable or makes them unpurchasable, and the available field is what says which. To have no effect, delete the rule.

The write is a literal PUT: the request body replaces the entire rule, and an omitted available field is not preserved from the previous value. A rule written without available is stored with available: false, which makes every matching product unpurchasable. Always include available explicitly in every write.

The published field on this rule is deprecated: it appears in the schema but has no effect and nothing reads it. Omit it.

Example

Make every product tagged final-sale unpurchasable while leaving it browsable in the catalog:

PUT /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules/availability/tags/final-sale

{
  "available": false
}

Delete the rule to remove the override:

DELETE /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules/availability/tags/final-sale

All rules for a merchant, both types, are readable in one call via GET /merchants/{merchant_id}/catalog-rules. Endpoint details are in Merchant Configuration Resources.

Related

• How catalog rules work explains when availability applies relative to exclusion.

• Exclusion rules act earlier, before products enter the catalog.