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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://spreecommerce.org/docs/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Before proceeding to upgrade, please ensure you’re at Spree 5.4.

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Upgrade steps

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Update gems

bundle update

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Fetch and run missing migrations

bin/rake spree:install:migrations && bin/rails db:migrate

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Migrate legacy variant-pinned media

In 5.5 the product is the default owner of media. Existing variant-pinned images keep rendering, but new admin uploads attach to the product. To consolidate both into a single gallery, run: 
bin/rails spree:media:migrate_master_images_to_product_media
The task enqueues one Spree::Media::MigrateProductAssetsJob per product onto the images queue — make sure your job runner is processing that queue. Each job is idempotent, so re-running the task is safe; it skips products that no longer have variant-pinned assets. For larger catalogs, tune the batching with BATCH_SIZE: 
bin/rails spree:media:migrate_master_images_to_product_media BATCH_SIZE=1000
Run the task locally and on production. It does not block storefront rendering — new uploads attach to the product immediately — but until the enqueued jobs finish, old assets remain pinned to variants.

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Run the channels upgrade

Spree 5.5 promotes Order#channel from a free-text string column to a real Spree::Channel FK. Run this rake task immediately after db:migrate — it seeds the channel rows your existing stores need and backfills spree_orders.channel_id from the legacy string column: 
bin/rake spree:channels:upgrade
The task is idempotent — safe to re-run if it fails partway, and a no-op on stores/orders that have already been upgraded. It runs two sub-tasks in order:
  1. spree:channels:create_defaults — creates a default online channel for every store that doesn’t already have one. New 5.5+ stores get this automatically via the Store after_create callback; this sub-task only matters for stores that already exist when you upgrade. The channel’s after_create hook seeds the three default routing rules (Preferred Location → Minimize Splits → Default Location).
  2. spree:channels:backfill_order_channel_ids — scans each store’s orders, creates one Spree::Channel per distinct legacy channel value (claiming NULL/blank rows under the online default channel), and writes channel_id.
You can also run the two steps individually if you’d rather pace the upgrade: 
bin/rake spree:channels:create_defaults
bin/rake spree:channels:backfill_order_channel_ids
Orders modified after the upgrade auto-set channel_id via the model’s before_validation callback, so the backfill is only strictly required for orders that aren’t touched again post-upgrade — but running it once at upgrade time avoids surprises later. The legacy channel string column is kept on spree_orders and ignored by ActiveRecord (Spree::Order declares it in ignored_columns). It will be dropped in a later Spree release once enough time has passed for everyone to have run the backfill — until then it’s harmless DB ballast that lets the rake task be re-run if you need to.

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Schedule the Stock Reservations expiry job

Spree 5.5 introduces time-limited stock reservations during checkout to prevent two customers from buying the same last unit at the same time. Abandoned checkouts leave behind expired reservation rows, and Spree does not auto-schedule the cleanup — your application’s job runner must run Spree::StockReservations::ExpireJob periodically (every minute is the recommended cadence). If you skip this step, expired reservations accumulate in the table indefinitely. The Quantifier still ignores them at availability-check time (so customers see correct stock), but the table grows unbounded.

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sidekiq-cron

# config/sidekiq_cron.yml
expire_stock_reservations:
  cron: "* * * * *"
  class: "Spree::StockReservations::ExpireJob"
  queue: default

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solid_queue

# config/recurring.yml
expire_stock_reservations:
  schedule: every minute
  class: Spree::StockReservations::ExpireJob

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good_job

# config/initializers/good_job.rb
Rails.application.configure do
  config.good_job.cron = {
    expire_stock_reservations: {
      cron: '* * * * *',
      class: 'Spree::StockReservations::ExpireJob'
    }
  }
end

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(Optional) Tune the reservation TTL

The default reservation TTL is 10 minutes. To override globally: 
# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree::Config[:default_stock_reservation_ttl_minutes] = 15
To override per Store, set the preference on the Store record: 
store.update!(preferred_stock_reservation_ttl_minutes: 20)
The per-Store value, when set, takes precedence over the global default.

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(Optional) Disable Stock Reservations

Stock reservations are enabled by default. To opt out and revert to pre-5.5 behavior (no holds during checkout, Quantifier returns raw count_on_hand): 
# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree::Config[:stock_reservations_enabled] = false
The Quantifier short-circuits before any reservation query when this is false, so there’s no runtime cost and no table growth.

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(Optional) Opt out of rules-based Order Routing

Spree 5.5 introduces Order Routing — a configurable, per-channel pipeline that decides which stock locations fulfill an order. Every store and every channel ships with three default rules (Preferred Location → Minimize Splits → Default Location) that produce sensible behavior out of the box, with no migration work required. If you’ve heavily customized fulfillment in Spree 5.4 and aren’t ready to adopt the new rules engine, you can keep the legacy pre-5.5 routing by switching the store’s strategy to Spree::OrderRouting::Strategy::Legacy: 
store.update!(preferred_order_routing_strategy: 'Spree::OrderRouting::Strategy::Legacy')
The Legacy strategy delegates to Spree::Stock::Coordinator, which is the exact pre-5.5 packing pipeline — every active stock location is packed, the Prioritizer distributes inventory units across the resulting packages, and no merchant routing rules are consulted. Your existing customizations on Coordinator, Packer, Prioritizer, and the splitters keep working unchanged.
Spree::OrderRouting::Strategy::Legacy and Spree::Stock::Coordinator are slated for removal in Spree 6.0. Use this only as a temporary escape hatch while you evaluate the new Rules strategy. New 5.5+ installations should stay on the default Rules strategy.

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Behavior changes worth knowing

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Cart changes during checkout can now fail with insufficient stock

When a customer is in checkout and tries to add an item, increase a quantity, or remove a line item, Spree now re-checks whether the cart still fits in available stock (subtracting what other customers are holding in their own active checkouts). If it doesn’t, the change is rejected up front instead of silently completing and failing later at order submission. Storefronts and custom integrations that act on the cart should expect this new failure path and surface the error to the customer.

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Storefront availability drops faster under contention

Other customers now see availability reduced by all active reservations, not just by completed orders. This is the intended fix to overselling — but if you have a real-time inventory dashboard that reads count_on_hand directly (rather than going through Spree’s availability checks), you’ll want to expose a “Reserved” axis to merchants so they can see in-checkout demand.

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Payment method type on the wire is now a shorthand, not a Rails class name

The type attribute on Spree::PaymentMethod (returned by both the Store API and the Admin API) used to be the full Rails STI class name — "SpreeStripe::Gateway", "SpreeAdyen::Gateway", "Spree::PaymentMethod::Check". In 5.5 it switches to a stable shorthand derived from Spree::Base.api_type:
ClassPre-5.5 type5.5+ type
Spree::PaymentMethod::CheckSpree::PaymentMethod::Checkcheck
Spree::PaymentMethod::StoreCreditSpree::PaymentMethod::StoreCreditstore_credit
SpreeStripe::GatewaySpreeStripe::Gatewaystripe
SpreeAdyen::GatewaySpreeAdyen::Gatewayadyen
SpreePaypalCheckout::GatewaySpreePaypalCheckout::Gatewaypaypal_checkout
SpreeRazorpayCheckout::GatewaySpreeRazorpayCheckout::Gatewayrazorpay_checkout
The shorthand is also what POST /api/v3/admin/payment_methods now expects as type when creating a new method, and what GET /api/v3/admin/payment_methods/types returns in its type field. This is a breaking change for any storefront or integration that string-matches the payment method type to pick which payment-gateway SDK to load. The official Spree Next.js storefront resolves the gateway in src/lib/utils/payment-gateway.ts; update its map to key on the new shorthand: 
const GATEWAY_TYPE_MAP: Record<string, GatewayId> = {
  // 5.5+ shorthands
  stripe: "stripe",
  adyen: "adyen",
  paypal_checkout: "paypal",
  razorpay_checkout: "razorpay",
  // Pre-5.5 Rails class names — keep while you have older backends in
  // the field; drop once everyone is on 5.5+.
  "SpreeStripe::Gateway": "stripe",
  "SpreeAdyen::Gateway": "adyen",
  "SpreePaypalCheckout::Gateway": "paypal",
  "SpreeRazorpayCheckout::Gateway": "razorpay",
};
If you maintain a custom storefront, search it for the legacy class strings ("SpreeStripe::Gateway", "SpreePaypalCheckout::Gateway", etc.) and add the corresponding 5.5+ shorthand alongside each one. The symptom of missing this is checkout rendering a generic “this payment method is not yet supported” placeholder instead of the gateway’s SDK form.

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Order Routing chooses location order via merchant rules instead of database order

The default routing strategy (Spree::OrderRouting::Strategy::Rules) packs the same set of stock locations as before, but the order in which locations are tried is now determined by the routing rules — Preferred Location → Minimize Splits → Default Location — rather than by raw database row order. The unit distribution (Prioritizer + Adjuster) is unchanged: top-ranked location’s packages get first pick of on-hand inventory, the rest spills over. For most stores this is invisible: when one location can fulfill the entire cart, that location now wins consistently (instead of depending on database iteration order). When the cart needs to split across locations, the same multi-location split happens — just with the location order driven by rules. If you rely on the legacy “every location packed in iteration order, no rule consulted” behavior, see Opt out of rules-based Order Routing above.