Dwarven Forge’s catalog relied on many linked Shopify variants that all represented the same physical items, causing constant inventory drift and heavy manual reconciliation, and they needed a way to unify stock across these variants without changing their merchandising strategy or day-to-day workflows.

I implemented an Inventory Groups engine that listens to Shopify webhooks, temporarily designates a master variant, and synchronizes all linked variants via precise delta updates so the result is fully automated, real-time inventory alignment that requires zero manual intervention.

A deterministic real-time pipeline built on Supabase and Shopify webhooks powers Inventory Groups, using HMAC-verified events, delta-based sync, and location-aware updates, and centralized logging and idempotent operations keep the system observable, safe, and free of race conditions or cascading loops.

A modern, Shopify-aligned dashboard lets staff manage inventory groups, browse large catalogs, and monitor sync activity with clear metrics and recent events, while card-based layouts, search, filters, and structured panels turn a complex automation engine into an intuitive operational surface.

The main challenges were keeping shared inventory consistent across variants and locations, processing webhooks safely, avoiding sync loops, and giving ops teams visibility, and these were solved with a shared quantity model, HMAC-verified atomic processing, location-scoped deltas, and rich logging and metrics.

Inventory Linker removed a major operational bottleneck by automating shared-stock syncing, cutting manual work and overselling while improving customer trust, and it now underpins Dwarven Forge’s inventory operations and provides a scalable foundation for future catalog growth.