Shopify Server-Timing
Shopify exposes information via Server-Timing response headers by default. Aside from choosing "Shopify" from the techstack CMS options, Shopify merchants using RUMvision don't need to do anything else.
Shopify's Server-Timing
RUMvision will then automatically start to track interesting information from the Server-Timing headers and make them available via either filters and group by dimensions or custom metrics.
Auto-collected fields
| Value | Type/collected | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
processing | Metric | Total time spent processing the request inside Shopify Storefront. This starts when the request reaches Shopify and ends when Shopify has finished handling the request. Useful for spotting server-side delays that can increase TTFB. |
db | Metric | Time spent querying Shopify’s database during request processing. This is a subset of processing and can help identify pages where backend data lookups contribute to slower responses. |
render | Metric | Time spent rendering the storefront response, likely including Liquid/theme rendering. Useful for identifying pages where theme complexity, sections, snippets, metafields, apps, or personalization increase server-side render time. |
edge | Filter | CDN edge location that handled the request, using a three-letter airport-style code. For example AMS, FRA, LHR, or DFW.Useful for spotting regional differences in TTFB, routing, cache behavior, or backend proximity. |
speculationTags | Filter transformed | Shows which speculation rule or prefetch mechanism was involved, for example shopify_storefront.Useful when debugging the impact of prefetching or Speculation Rules. |
prefetch | Metric transformed | Indicates that the page was prefetched. Useful for separating normal navigations from speculative or prefetched page loads. RUMvision looks at this value when there is no speculationTags value |
cfRequestDuration | Metric | Total duration from when the request hits Cloudflare until Cloudflare has finished processing it. Useful as a CDN-level view of request time, including time spent waiting on Shopify/origin. |
Other available fields
Data that is not being collected out of the box, but that you could add as custom timing or dimensions:
| Value | Collected by RUMvision | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
db_async | not collected reach out | Time spent on asynchronous database work during request processing. Shopify does not publicly document this field, so treat it as internal diagnostic data. It may overlap with or sit alongside other processing work. |
edge_cart | not collected reach out | Time spent on Shopify’s edge-side cart handling. The description sometimes includes the number of cart-related trips, for example trips=1.Useful as a hint when cart state, buyer context, or personalization may affect server response time. |
fetch | not collected reach out | Time spent fetching additional data needed to build the response. Shopify does not publicly document exactly what is included here, so treat it as an internal timing. It may include backend or service-to-service fetches performed while preparing the page. |
parse | not collected reach out | Older timing for parsing work during Shopify’s server-side page generation. This field appears on some older or observed responses, but seems to be less common now and may no longer be emitted consistently. |
asn | not collected reach out | Autonomous System Number of the visitor’s network or ISP, for example the network behind the user’s connection. Useful for network-level diagnostics, but usually less actionable for storefront performance optimization. |
country | not collected alternative | Country code associated with the request. RUMvision collects this via AWS pipelines. |
theme | not collected alternative | ID of the Shopify theme used to render the page. Useful when comparing performance across theme versions, preview themes, rollouts, or stores with multiple active templates. RUMvision collects this from the window.Shopify.theme object. |
pageType | not collected alternative | Shopify page type for the current request. For example index, collection, product, page, or cart.Useful for grouping server timings by template type. RUMvision collects this from the window.ShopifyAnalytics object. |
servedBy | not collected reach out | Internal Shopify identifier for the system, host, or service instance that served the request. This is not publicly documented, so it is mainly useful for Shopify-internal debugging or support escalation. |
earlyhints | not collected reach out | Present when Early Hints were used for the request. Early Hints can allow the browser to start fetching important resources before the final response is ready. |
compressionLevel | not collected reach out | Compression level used for the response, for example 5 or 7. Higher levels can reduce transfer size but may cost more CPU time.Useful together with compressionTime and HTML size. |
compressionTime | not collected reach out | Time spent compressing the response before sending it to the browser. High values can contribute to TTFB, especially for large HTML responses or higher compression levels. |
requestID | not collected reach out | Unique request identifier generated for the Shopify request. Useful for debugging or support escalation, but usually not needed in aggregated RUM analysis. |
ipv6 | not collected reach out | Present when the request used IPv6. Useful for low-level network diagnostics, but usually not needed for day-to-day performance analysis. |
Important
RUMvision auto-transforms
In a few specific cases, the RUMvision tracking script will automatically transform values or collapse keys:
- For
speculationTagsandprefetch, RUMvision will first look at any value forspeculationTags. If there is no value there, RUMvision will try and collect the value forprefetch, which is then stored in the same dashboard filter.
Shopify notes
Aside from Cloudflare's official documentation, there is no official documentation for Shopify's own information that they expose via Server-Timing. This also means that naming conventions that they picked, could suddenly change. We as a RUM provider will attempt to stay up to date, but won't benefit from official Shopify release notes or publications around this topic.
