AfterShip

The AfterShip app sends your Swell shipments to AfterShip as trackings, and brings their delivery status back to the order. When a shipment gets a tracking number, AfterShip starts tracking the parcel with the carrier and, if you've set them up in AfterShip, sends its own tracking notifications to the customer.

Status changes reach Swell through a signed AfterShip webhook, and the app also refreshes trackings still in transit every hour. Each order's AfterShip tab shows the delivery status, estimated delivery and latest scan of its shipments.

Nothing is sent to AfterShip while Enabled is off.

Install AfterShip from the Swell App Store, and set it up in your test environment before the live one.

https://{store-id}:{public-key}@{store-id}.swell.store/functions/aftership/aftership-webhook

With Send shipments to AfterShip on, the app sends a shipment when it's created with a tracking number, and when its tracking number or carrier changes. Drafts, canceled shipments and shipments without a tracking number aren't sent. A shipment without a tracking number is sent once it gets one. Changes to other shipment details, such as notes or items, aren't sent.

Each tracking has:

If AfterShip already has a tracking with the same number, for example one you added in AfterShip, the app links the shipment to it instead of creating a second one.

When the tracking number or carrier changes, the app creates a new tracking and deletes the old one. If AfterShip refuses a shipment, for example because the tracking number isn't valid, the reason shows on the order's AfterShip tab, and the shipment isn't sent again until its tracking number or carrier changes.

The app sends the shipment's carrier as the AfterShip courier, in lowercase with spaces and underscores turned into hyphens. Carriers whose AfterShip name differs are translated, such as dhl_express to dhl, canada_post to canada-post and royal_mail to royal-mail. Carriers set by a shipping app use the carrier name instead.

When the shipment has no usable carrier, or AfterShip doesn't accept the courier, the tracking is sent without one, and AfterShip detects the courier from the tracking number. Detection works best with the couriers you ship with turned on in AfterShip. If AfterShip picks the wrong courier, correct it in AfterShip.

AfterShip sends status changes to the webhook. The app loads the tracking from AfterShip with your API key, then saves its status, latest scan with its location, estimated delivery, delivery date and tracking page on the shipment, and updates the order's AfterShip tab. Updates older than the one already saved are ignored.

The statuses are AfterShip's: Pending, Info received, In transit, Out for delivery, Delivery attempt failed, Ready for pickup, Delivered, Exception and Expired. The app changes only its own fields. The order's status and the shipment's own details stay as they are.

Each order gets an AfterShip tab with these read-only fields:

A shipment AfterShip refused, or whose tracking was deleted in AfterShip, shows "Not tracked:" with the reason instead of a status. Canceled shipments and shipments the app hasn't sent aren't listed.

Every hour, at 15 minutes past, the app reloads up to 50 trackings from AfterShip, those checked longest ago first, in case a webhook was missed. It checks shipments created in the last 60 days that aren't canceled, while their status isn't Delivered or Expired. Webhooks still update the shipment after that. There's no action to refresh right away.

If a tracking was deleted in AfterShip, the refresh removes it from the shipment, and the order's AfterShip tab shows "Not tracked: The tracking was deleted in AfterShip." The shipment isn't sent again until its tracking number or carrier changes.

With Delete trackings of canceled shipments on, canceling or deleting a shipment in Swell deletes its AfterShip tracking, so AfterShip stops tracking the parcel and sending notifications for it. A tracking that's already gone in AfterShip counts as deleted. This also deletes a tracking you created in AfterShip that the shipment was linked to.

A canceled shipment's tracking is cleared from it, so if the shipment is restored, it's sent again. With the setting off, the tracking stays in AfterShip.

To send shipments created before the app was installed, or while sending was off, go to Apps > AfterShip, choose Actions > Send existing shipments, choose 7 days, 30 days or 90 days in Shipments created in the last, and click Send shipments.

Send existing shipments is in the Actions menu only while Send shipments to AfterShip is on.

Settings are in Apps > AfterShip > Settings and are saved separately for each environment.

API key and Enabled are at the top. The other settings are on the Shipments and Tracking updates tabs.

Test connection and Send existing shipments show their results in the dashboard, and errors about a shipment show on its order's AfterShip tab. The app also logs each shipment it sends and each error. In the Swell dashboard, the logs are under Developer > Console > Logs.

Enter the API key, click Save settings, and run Test connection again.

Copy the key again from Settings > API keys in AfterShip, and check that its authentication type is API key. AES and RSA signature keys aren't supported. Paste it, click Save settings, and test again.

The message names the call AfterShip refused. Check that the API key is allowed to read and write trackings, and that your AfterShip plan includes API access.

AfterShip had a server error. "Couldn't reach AfterShip (…). Try again later." means the request didn't get through, and "AfterShip rate limit reached (429). Try again in a minute." means AfterShip limited the app's requests. Try again in a minute.

Check that Enabled and Send shipments to AfterShip are on, and that the shipment has a tracking number and isn't a draft or canceled. Shipments created before the app was installed, or while sending was off, are sent when their tracking number or carrier changes, or with Send existing shipments. The logs show "AfterShip: missing API key in app settings" when the key is empty, and "not sent:" with the reason when AfterShip refused the shipment.

AfterShip refused the shipment, and the reason follows the message, for example an invalid tracking number. Fix the shipment's tracking number or carrier in Swell, and the app sends it again.

The tracking was deleted in AfterShip. To track the shipment again, change its tracking number or carrier in Swell, or add the tracking in AfterShip yourself.

Check that Enabled is on, and check the webhook in AfterShip under Settings > Webhooks: the URL needs your store ID and a public key for the same environment. Run Test connection to check that the webhook secret is set. Without webhooks, the status changes with the next hourly refresh, for shipments created in the last 60 days.

AfterShip's webhook gets a 401 response with this message while Webhook secret is empty. Copy the secret from Settings > Webhooks in AfterShip, enter it on the Tracking updates tab, and click Save settings.

AfterShip's webhook gets a 401 response with this message when the request isn't signed with the Webhook secret saved in Swell. Copy the secret again from AfterShip, save it, and check that the webhook is from the same AfterShip account as the API key.

AfterShip's webhook gets a 404 response with this message when the URL has no public key, a key from another store, or a key for an environment where the app isn't installed. Check the {store-id} and {public-key} parts of the URL. If your AfterShip plan includes custom webhook headers, you can instead add a header with the key Authorization and your Swell public key as its value.

The run fails without sending anything, with "Import not started: the AfterShip app is turned off in its settings." when Enabled is off, "Import not started: Send shipments to AfterShip is off in the app settings.", or "Import not started: add the API key in Apps → AfterShip." Fix the setting, click Save settings, and run it again.

Enabled or Send shipments to AfterShip was turned off, or the API key was removed, during the run. The message gives the reason and the totals until then. Fix the setting and run it again. Shipments already sent aren't sent twice.

AfterShip refused the run, for example because of a rejected API key or a 403. The message gives the same explanation as Test connection and the totals until then. Fix the cause and run it again.

AfterShip didn't accept any of the shipments. The reason for each is on its order's AfterShip tab, and the logs list each one with "not sent:".

Turn on Send shipments to AfterShip and click Save settings.

Uninstalling the app stops sending shipments, deleting the trackings of canceled shipments and refreshing statuses. It removes the app's functions and settings page, the AfterShip tab on orders, and the Test connection and Send existing shipments actions. The webhook stops working, so AfterShip's deliveries to it fail with a 404. Uninstalling applies to the environment you are in, so remove the app from the test and live environments separately.

The AfterShip values saved on your shipments and orders are kept, and show again if you reinstall the app. Trackings stay in AfterShip, and AfterShip keeps tracking them and sending its notifications. The app isn't notified when it's uninstalled, so delete the webhook in AfterShip under Settings > Webhooks, and the API key under Settings > API keys if you no longer need it. To pause the app without uninstalling it, turn off Enabled.

The app stores its fields on shipments under $app.aftership: tracking_id, synced, tracking_number, courier, status, status_detail, last_event, last_event_at, estimated_delivery, delivered_at, tracking_url, updated_at, checked_at and error. On orders, it stores aftership_status, aftership_tracking_url, aftership_estimated_delivery, aftership_delivered_at and aftership_shipments under $app.aftership.

Calls go to the AfterShip Tracking API version 2026-07, at https://api.aftership.com/tracking/2026-07, with the key in the as-api-key header:

The tracking body has tracking_number, slug, title, order_id, order_number, order_date, order_id_path, tracking_ship_date, destination_country_region, destination_state, destination_city, destination_postal_code, shipment_tags, custom_fields with swell_shipment_id and swell_order_id, and customers. Dates are sent as YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss+00:00, without milliseconds. order_id_path is the store's admin_url plus /orders/{id}, and is left out in Send existing shipments runs, whose requests have no admin_url.

The country is converted from ISO alpha-2 to alpha-3 with country-iso-2-to-3. Phone numbers are parsed with libphonenumber-js's parsePhoneNumberWithError, using the destination phone, then the order's shipping phone, then the account's phone, with the destination country as the default country. Numbers that fail to parse or isValid() are left out, and the rest are sent as E.164.

The webhook reads the aftership-hmac-sha256 header, the base64 HMAC-SHA256 of the raw request body keyed with the webhook secret, and compares it in constant time. It reads only msg.id from the payload, then loads the tracking with GET /trackings/{id}. The shipment is found by the tracking's custom_fields.swell_shipment_id when that shipment has the same tracking_id, else by $app.aftership.tracking_id. Updates whose updated_at is older than the saved one are skipped. Network errors, 429 and 5xx from AfterShip, and errors saving to Swell, answer 503. Other AfterShip errors are logged and acknowledged.

synced holds the courier slug and tracking number last sent, as usps:9400…, or auto: plus the number when there's no slug. A shipment is sent only when this key changes, and errors about the shipment are saved with the key, so they aren't retried on every update. In the event functions, network errors, 429 and 5xx are rethrown, so Swell retries the function. A retry is safe because an existing tracking is linked, not duplicated. 401 and 403 errors are logged and not saved.

The hourly refresh matches shipments by $app.aftership.status in the open statuses, canceled not true and date_created in the last 60 days, sorted by $app.aftership.checked_at. The import's step output holds only flags and counts, never the API key or webhook secret.

Swell builds and maintains the AfterShip app. For help with the app, email support@swell.is. For questions about your AfterShip account, couriers, trackings or notifications, contact AfterShip.