X-Sorting-Hat-PodId
Request routing in Shopify's podded architecture is made visible through the X-Sorting-Hat-PodId unofficial response header, which identifies the pod that processed a given request.
Usage
Shopify operates a podded architecture where each pod is a fully isolated instance of the platform, consisting of a dedicated MySQL database shard and supporting datastores like Redis and Memcached. Each pod houses a unique subset of merchant stores. The X-Sorting-Hat-PodId header reveals which pod processed a given request.
The "Sorting Hat" is Shopify's routing layer, deployed at the load balancer level. When a request arrives, the Sorting Hat consults a routing table, matches the target store to its assigned pod, and attaches the pod identifier as a header. Application servers downstream use this header to connect to the correct datastore, ensuring each request reaches only the data partition responsible for the targeted store.
Note
The "X-" naming convention for HTTP headers, "X" referring to "experimental", has been deprecated and needs to be transitioned to the formal naming convention for HTTP headers.
Values
Numeric pod identifier
The value is a positive integer representing a specific pod in Shopify's infrastructure. Each number maps to an isolated set of datastores serving a group of merchant stores. The same store consistently routes to the same pod, though Shopify migrates stores between pods for load balancing.
-1
A value of -1 indicates the request was not routed to a
specific pod. This appears on requests not mapped to
a particular store, such as generic platform pages or
unresolved domains.
Example
A request to a Shopify-hosted store returned a pod
identifier of 337. This means the store's data lives on
pod 337, and the Sorting Hat routed the request to the
corresponding datastores.
X-Sorting-Hat-PodId: 337
A different store routed to pod 82. Stores on distinct
pods have fully isolated data, so pod 82 has no access to
the data on pod 337.
X-Sorting-Hat-PodId: 82
A value of -1 signals the request did not resolve to a
store-specific pod. This commonly appears on staging
domains or generic Shopify endpoints.
X-Sorting-Hat-PodId: -1
The X-Sorting-Hat-PodId header typically appears alongside other Shopify routing headers in the same response.
X-Sorting-Hat-PodId: 253
X-ShardId: 253
X-ShopId: 12345678
X-Sorting-Hat-ShopId: 12345678