Goal: Use Shopify Sidekick, the AI assistant built into your Shopify admin, to work with Altera by simply describing what you want. You can check on your import and export jobs, set up exports, download finished files, and get help, all from the Sidekick chat without opening the app yourself.
Prerequisites:
You have Altera installed on your Shopify store
Sidekick is available in your Shopify admin (Sidekick is Shopify's own assistant; availability depends on your Shopify plan and region)
Step 1 - Open Sidekick
In your Shopify admin, open Sidekick from the top bar and start a message. You can mention Altera, imports, or exports in plain language, the same way you would ask a teammate.
Step 2 - Ask about your jobs
Ask things like "What's the status of my last Altera export?" or "Show me my recent import and export jobs." Sidekick reads your Altera jobs and answers inline, with a link to open the job in Altera for full details.
Step 3 - Set up an export by describing it
Tell Sidekick what you want to export, for example "Export all my orders as a CSV" or "Export my products." Sidekick opens Altera's export screen with your choices pre-filled. Review the columns and settings, then click Start export to run it (exports never start on their own, so nothing happens until you run it).
Step 4 - Narrow down what you export
Be as specific as you like and Sidekick fills in the matching filters and columns:
"Export this product" or "Export these three orders" exports only those records.
"Export yesterday's orders" or "Export my draft products" exports a filtered subset.
"Export just the order name and email" exports only those columns.
"Export products with the custom.fit metafield" narrows the metafields included.
Step 5 - Download a finished export
Ask "Download my last products export" and Sidekick gives you a download link for the finished file. The link is temporary, so download it soon after.
Step 6 - Get help or jump to a page
Ask how-to questions like "How do I import products with metafields?" or "What does error ALYS001 mean?" and Sidekick answers from Altera's help center. You can also say "Open my Altera plan", "Open Altera settings", or "Open store migration" to jump straight to those pages.
Outcome
You can manage your Altera imports and exports conversationally from Shopify admin. Sidekick reads your jobs, pre-fills export setups for you to review and run, hands you download links, and points you to the right page or help article.
A note on imports
To import a spreadsheet from your computer, upload it in Altera directly, Sidekick cannot upload files for you. Sidekick can still open the remote import page for files coming from FTP, cloud storage, or a web URL, and it can answer questions about how to structure your import file.
Example prompts
You say | What Sidekick does |
"Did my product import finish?" | Reports the latest run status and links to the job |
"Export all customers as an Excel file" | Opens a pre-filled customers export for you to run |
"Export orders from last week" | Pre-fills an orders export with a date-range filter |
"Download my latest export" | Returns a download link for the finished file |