Create a digital product with Sidekick
Shopify Sidekick is the AI assistant inside the Shopify admin, and Alva Digital Downloads connects it to product creation. When you ask Sidekick to make a digital product, it opens Alva's create-product page — optionally pre-filled with a title and price — where you pick the digital file and confirm. Nothing is published or charged automatically.
What Sidekick sets up for you
Alva Digital Downloads creates two things at once from a single Create click: a Shopify product saved as a draft, and the delivery configuration that sends your chosen files to the customer after purchase. The product stays a draft until you publish it, so you review every detail first.
Because Alva wires delivery as part of creation, there is no separate file-mapping step afterward. The files you pick on the create-product page are the files the product delivers. Sidekick receives the new product's id once Alva finishes.
A Sidekick-created product is always a draft. It is invisible to shoppers and cannot be purchased until you publish it in Shopify, which keeps you in control of pricing, copy, and timing.
Step by step: from a Sidekick request to a draft product
Creating a digital product through Sidekick takes a short, predictable path. Sidekick handles the navigation; you make the file and price decisions and confirm with one click.
- Ask Sidekick to create a digital product — for example, "Create a digital product called 'Watercolor Brush Pack' for $9.99."
- Sidekick opens Alva's create-product page in the embedded admin, pre-filled with any title or price you gave it.
- Pick the digital file or files the product should deliver from the files you have uploaded to Alva.
- Adjust the title and price if needed, then click Create digital product to confirm.
- Alva creates the Shopify product as a draft, wires it to deliver your files, and hands the product id back to Sidekick.
Set the title and price while you're on the page
Sidekick can set or refine the draft's title and price while the create-product page is open, using its set_product_details tool. The tool only fills the form fields — it never creates the product on its own. You stay the one who clicks Create digital product to confirm.
This means you can iterate by chatting: rename the product, change the price, then create when it looks right. Sidekick is shop-scoped, so every change it stages applies only to your store.
Review and publish your draft
Alva Digital Downloads leaves the new product as a draft so you can review it before it goes live. Open the product in Shopify, check the title, price, description, and images, confirm the delivered files are correct, then publish when you are ready to sell.
Once published, the product delivers its files automatically after each paid order — the delivery setup Alva configured during creation is already in place. To send yourself a real delivery before going public, place a test order on the draft.
Frequently asked questions
No. Sidekick creates the product as a draft for you to review and publish. Nothing goes live or starts charging until you publish it yourself in Shopify.
Yes. Sidekick can set the title and price on the draft using the set_product_details tool. It only fills the form — you confirm by clicking Create digital product.
Any digital file you have already uploaded to Alva Digital Downloads. You pick the file or files on the create-product page before clicking Create.
No. Alva Digital Downloads wires the product to deliver the files you choose automatically. There is no separate file-mapping step after the product is created.
See also
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Last updated 2026-06-18