The Home screen answers two questions: is the app healthy, and is the setup complete? This page explains the indicators, the checklist, and the emergency brake.
The health indicators
The Home screen shows app health in one line near the bottom of the page, for example "All systems normal · 9/17 models active · 7 widgets live". The first word summarizes the health: All systems normal, Degraded, or Issues detected. Click Details to open Health details. There, the System health card has six rows. Each row has a colored dot: green is good, yellow is degraded, red needs action. Each row that is not green shows a one-line fix and a link.
Indicator | What it checks | When it is not green |
|---|---|---|
Catalog sync | How many products are indexed and how recent the last sync is. | Run a sync. See Your first data sync. |
Search index | The search index responds and contains your product documents. It turns red if the index is empty while your store has products. | If it says the index is empty, run a catalog resync from Data sync. Otherwise the problem is on our side; if it lasts over an hour, contact support. |
Recommendation engine | The recommendation service answers a live check (refreshed about every 30 seconds). | The problem is on our side, and we get an alert automatically. If it lasts over an hour, contact support. |
Event pipeline | Shopify’s product, order and customer updates (webhooks) reach us and are processed. | Yellow on a fresh install is normal: it turns green when the first webhook arrives, for example after you edit a product. Yellow also means one recent delivery failed or nothing arrived for 7 days; red means recent deliveries keep failing. Open Data sync to see them. |
Pixel | The tracking pixel is installed. | Open Settings in the app. In the Web pixel card, click Retry web pixel install. |
Storefront widgets | Your storefront sent activity in the last 24 hours. If not, the app checks the app embed in your live theme. | Red means the app embed is off in your live theme. Turn it on, see Add widgets to your theme. Yellow means no recent activity. Place at least one widget. On a store with little traffic, yellow can be normal. |
The System health card in Health details — six dots that tell you the app works.
The store health card — which models are ready
Below the system dots in Health details, the Store health card lists your recommendation models one per row, with your catalog size, 30-day orders, and recent traffic at the top. It answers the question “is this actually working yet?”
Row says | What it means |
|---|---|
Active | The model is serving. Models that learn overnight also show when they last refreshed, for example “updated 6 hours ago”. |
Training | The model has enough data and its first overnight computation has not landed yet. The fallback chain serves in the meantime. |
Stale | The model trained before, but nothing has refreshed inside its normal window, so the widget is serving fallbacks — the row says “Hasn't refreshed in N days — showing fallback recommendations”. A run that completes always refreshes this row, including a run that found nothing new to compute, so Stale means runs are not completing rather than “there was nothing to do”. We do not promise it clears by itself. If it is still there after a couple of days, contact support. |
Needs data | The model is not serving because there is not enough to learn from. Either your store has not met the model's minimum — the row tells you what is short, for example “Needs 100 orders/30d, you have 23” — or the model has met every minimum, has run, and still could not find a pattern: “Last run 2026-09-01 found too little data to build recommendations — showing fallbacks.” The second one is normal on a small or quiet catalog; the fallback chain serves and the row changes itself once a run succeeds. |
Locked | The model needs a higher plan. |
The count at the top of the card (“8 of 11 models active”), and the same count in the Home health line, counts only models that are genuinely serving — a model showing Stale is not counted as active, so the number and the rows always agree.
Custom blends are not in this list. They are yours to create, and each one has its own status on the Custom blends screen. See Hand-picked & custom models.
The setup guide on Home
The Setup guide card on the Home screen tracks up to eight setup items. Your plan decides how many you see: the card leaves out items for features your plan does not include. The card shows the count, for example "3 of 8 done". The next two open items each show a Start button that opens the right screen. Click Show all N steps or Show completed to see the other items. When all items are done, a Dismiss setup guide button appears.
Item | Badge | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Install pixel extension | Required | Without the pixel, the app cannot learn or attribute revenue. |
Place PDP widget | Recommended | The product page is the highest-value placement. |
Place homepage widget | Recommended | Trending products engage shoppers who land on the homepage. |
Enable checkout upsells | Recommended | Checkout upsells raise the average order value. |
Add search synonyms | Optional | Synonyms connect your shoppers' words to your product names. |
Create merchandising rule (Growth plan and up) | Optional | Rules give you control over what ranks first. Shown on the Growth plan or higher. |
Run first A/B test (Growth plan and up) | Optional | Tests prove which setup earns more. Shown on the Growth plan or higher. |
Connect email provider (Starter plan and up) | Optional | Integrations feed recommendations into your email flows. Shown on the Starter plan or higher. |
The setup guide on Home — each open item links to the screen that completes it.
Pause and resume — the emergency brake
App status is the one switch that stops everything. Use it during a theme rework, or when something on the storefront looks wrong and you want it gone now.
- Open the app in your Shopify admin.
- Go to Settings.
- In the first card, turn off the switch next to PersonalizerAI is active.
- Click Save in the save bar at the top of the page.
The card confirms with "PersonalizerAI is paused". The pause applies to every storefront request from the moment you save. To resume, turn the switch on and click Save in the save bar. Serving starts again the same way. Your settings, data, and placements stay untouched while the app is paused.
You can also pause and resume from the PersonalizerAI dashboard, under Settings → General. Both switches control the same setting.
The app status card in Settings — the emergency brake for the whole app.
Where to get help
- Support — open Settings in the app and use the Help & support card, open Help in the PersonalizerAI dashboard, or email support@personalizerai.com. We typically reply within one business day.
- Onboarding call — during setup, click Book free onboarding help under any step. After setup, use Book a free onboarding call in the Help & support card in Settings. The call is free.
- This Help Center — start with Troubleshooting for symptom-first fixes.
What the app tells you after launch
You do not have to watch the Home screen. The app emails you when something needs you, and it lists the same messages under Notifications in the PersonalizerAI dashboard. Two arrive early:
- Your catalog is ready — once, when the first sync finishes. See Your first data sync.
- Your week in review — every Monday, once your store has a week with activity in it. A week with no activity at all is skipped, so a brand-new store does not get one straight away.
To choose which emails you receive, see Emails & notifications.
Related pages
- Troubleshooting — "my widget does not show" and other symptoms.
- Install & the setup guide — the pre-launch checklist in Step 5.
- Dashboard & KPIs — what to watch after launch.
- Data sync settings — sync status and webhook activity.
- Emails & notifications — what the app emails you, and how to control it.