Shipment Release Rule

Shipment Release Rules are tenant-configurable, ranked rules that automate the timing of when shipments in Hold status should be released for fulfillment. Instead of requiring manual intervention to set or update a shipment’s Shipment Release Date, a scheduled background job evaluates configured rules against all on-hold shipments, computes the optimal release date based on lead-time attributes sourced from location, product, and customer entities, and updates the shipment accordingly. This feature works in conjunction with Kibo’s Hold Shipments capability, which allows shipments to be paused during the fulfillment process. While Hold Shipments provides the mechanism to place and release shipments on hold, Shipment Release Rules provide the automated, rule-driven logic for determining when each held shipment should become ready for fulfillment. In addition to the UI detailed here, you can create and manage shipment release rules with the Shipment Release Rule API endpoints.

How Shipment Release Rules Work

A scheduled background job runs every 2 minutes for each tenant. On each run, the job:

Loads all enabled Shipment Release Rules, ordered by Rank (ascending).
Fetches all shipments currently in Hold status.
For each held shipment, evaluates rules in rank order — the first matching rule wins.
For matched shipments, computes a new Shipment Release Date by subtracting lead-time business days from the shipment’s Ship Date.
If the computed date differs from the existing value, updates the shipment’s Shipment Release Date and sets the shipment as cross-dock eligible.
Records counts of scanned, skipped, updated, and failed shipments for each run.

The actual transition from Hold to Ready status is performed by the existing automatic release background job (configured in General Settings), which releases any held shipment whose Shipment Release Date is less than or equal to the current timestamp. Shipment Release Rules only compute and set the Shipment Release Date — they do not change shipment status directly.

Prerequisites

Hold Shipments must be enabled at the site level. See Hold Shipments for setup instructions.
Lead-time attributes must be configured on the relevant Location, Product, and/or Customer entities. These are custom attributes (typed as integers) that represent processing or lead-time values in business days.
Ship Date must be set on the shipment. Ship Date is a first-class field that flows from the order to the shipment and is set via API.

The following behaviors allow users to view and manage Shipment Release Rules. The Admin and Super Admin roles have these behaviors by default.

Shipment Release Rule
- Shipment Release Rule Read, Shipment Release Rule Create, Shipment Release Rule Update, Shipment Release Rule Delete

Shipment Release Rule Criteria

Shipment Release Rules are based on filter criteria called product rules, customer rules, shipment rules, and location selections. These criteria determine which shipments qualify for the rule. At least one criterion is recommended, though a rule with all criteria empty will match any shipment.

Product Rules are made up of a set of conditions that can be used with logical operators like OR or AND, such as “Color = Blue AND Brand = Adidas” that would restrict the rule to products that fit those conditions. These can be based on product type, code, variant, static category, attribute, and other first-class fields.
Customer Rules apply conditions based on customer segments or account attributes.
Shipment Rules apply conditions based on shipment attributes.
Location Codes and Location Groups restrict the rule to specific fulfillment locations or location groups.

Within a single rule, conditions across all expression types (Product, Customer, Shipment, Location) are combined using AND logic — a shipment must match all defined expressions to be selected by that rule. Within a single expression type, conditions can be combined using AND or OR logic, as configured by the user.

Note: Product rules, customer rules, shipment rules, and location rules are exclusive to each rule type. For example, the same product rule cannot be used by both a Shipment Release Rule and a Safety Stock Rule.

In addition to the filter criteria, each rule includes an Attribute Selection section where you specify which lead-time fields to use in the release date calculation. This is separate from the filter criteria — filters determine which shipments qualify, while the attribute selection determines how the release date is calculated for those qualifying shipments.

Shipment Release Rule Properties

Each Shipment Release Rule has the following properties:

Property	Type	Description
Code	string	Unique identifier (system-supplied if not provided)
Name	string	Display name for the rule
Description	string	Optional description
Enabled	boolean	Toggle for rule activation. Only enabled rules are evaluated by the job.
Rank	integer	Evaluation order. Rules are evaluated in ascending rank order (first match wins). Rank 1 is evaluated first.
Location Codes	string[]	Specific location codes the rule applies to. Empty means “any location.”
Location Groups	string[]	Location groups the rule applies to. Empty means “any location group.”
Customer Rules	string[]	Account attributes such as account ID, segment
Product Rules	object[]	Product-level attributes such as Product Code, Variant Product Code, UPC, Mfg Part Number ,Product Type, Category Code, Category List Price, Fulfilment Types Supported, Height, Length, Weight, Width, attributes properties
Shipment Rules	object[]	Shipment-level attributes such as fulfillment type, carrier, shipping method, estimated delivery date, last cancellation date, SLA status, or extensible attributes at the shipment header or line level
Attribute Selection	JSON array	Lead-time attribute FQNs for location, product, and customer entities. See Attribute Selection above.
Start Date	datetime	Effective window start date. Rules are active on or after this date. Null means unbounded (active from the beginning).
End Date	datetime	Effective window end date. Rules are active on or before this date. Null means unbounded (active indefinitely).
Audit Info	object	System-managed audit tracking (created by, created date, updated by, updated date)

Attribute Selection

The Attribute Selection specifies which lead-time attributes to use when computing the Shipment Release Date. You can select one attribute from each of three sources: Location, Product, and Customer.

Attribute Type	Description
Location	A custom integer attribute on the fulfillment location that represents location-level lead time in business days
Product	A custom integer attribute on the product that represents product-level lead time in business days
Customer	A custom integer attribute on the customer account that represents customer-specific lead time in business days

Rules for Attribute Selection

You are not required to select any attributes — an empty or partial selection is valid. If no lead-time attributes are selected, the release date defaults to the Ship Date (zero lead time subtracted).
Only one attribute of each type (location, product, customer) may be selected per rule.
Any combination of attribute types may be selected (e.g., location + product only, product only, all three).

Example Attribute Selection JSON

"attributeSelection": [
  { "attributeType": "location", "value": "tenant~shipment-processing-time" },
  { "attributeType": "product", "value": "tenant~product-processing-time" },
  { "attributeType": "customer", "value": "tenant~customer-processing-time" }
]

Lead-Time Formula

When a shipment matches a rule, the system computes the Shipment Release Date using the following formula: Shipment Release Date = Ship Date − Location Lead Time − Product Lead Time − Customer Lead Time Where:

Term	Source	Description
Ship Date	Shipment	The shipment’s Ship Date (a first-class field that flows from the order to the shipment, set via API)
Location Lead Time	Location attribute	The integer attribute value on the fulfillment location, using the FQN from the attribute selection where attribute type = location
Product Lead Time	Product attribute	The integer attribute value on the product (based on the first line item in the shipment), using the FQN from the attribute selection where attribute type = product
Customer Lead Time	Customer attribute	The integer attribute value on the customer account, using the FQN from the attribute selection where attribute type = customer. Only evaluated if a customer attribute is defined.

Business-Day Calculation

The system subtracts the total lead-time days from the Ship Date by decrementing one calendar day at a time, skipping Saturdays and Sundays. No holiday calendar is applied. All date arithmetic is performed in UTC. Note: If the computed Shipment Release Date is in the past (less than or equal to the current UTC time), the system clamps it to 30 minutes from the current time so the shipment is released promptly rather than scheduled retroactively.

Example Calculation

Input	Value
Ship Date	Friday, June 12, 2026
Location Lead Time	2 days
Product Lead Time	3 days
Customer Lead Time	1 day
Total	6 business days

Subtracting 6 business days from June 12 (Friday): Result: Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Configure Shipment Release Rules

To configure a shipment release rule:

Go to Main > Fulfillment > Rules > Shipment Release Rules.
Click Create Shipment Release Rule or click an existing rule in the table. /
Enter a Code. If not provided, the system will generate one automatically.
Enter a Name.
Enter an optional Description.
Configure the matching criteria for the rule:
- Location Codes: Select specific locations from the dropdown, or leave empty to match any location.
- Location Groups: Select specific location groups, or leave empty to match any group.
- Customer Rules: Select customer/account ranking rule codes, or leave empty to match any customer.
- Product Rules: Select product rules (with master catalog), or leave empty to match any product.
- Shipment Rules: Select shipment rules, or leave empty to match any shipment.
Configure the Attribute Selection to specify lead-time attributes:
- Select a Location Attribute FQN (optional).
- Select a Product Attribute FQN (optional).
- Select a Customer Attribute FQN (optional).
- You may select any combination, but only one of each type.
Toggle Enabled to activate the rule.
Click Save.

Manage Shipment Release Rules

This page at Main > Orders > Inventory > Shipment Release Rules displays all existing rules and allows you to manage them with the below actions:

Toggle the Status icon on a specific rule to enable or disable it.
Expand the actions menu on a specific rule to Edit or Delete it.
Edit the Rank of a rule or click and drag it to reorder them. When the rules are run, they will always be applied in order of the highest to lowest rank (with 1 being the highest rank). The first matching rule wins.

Rule Matching Logic

Rules are evaluated in ascending Rank order. The first rule whose criteria all match a given shipment is used — remaining rules are not considered (first-match-wins). A rule matches a shipment when all of the following criteria are satisfied. Empty or null criteria on the rule mean “any”:

Criterion	Match Condition
Shipment Rules	The shipment rule matches the shipment
Product Rules	The product rule matches the first line item in the shipment
Location Codes	The rule’s location codes include the shipment’s fulfillment location
Location Groups	The rule’s location groups include the shipment’s location group
Customer Rules	The customer rule matches the shipment’s customer (segment or account ID)

At least one Rule criteria must be selected to save the shipment rule

Cross-Dock Eligibility

When a shipment’s Shipment Release Date is updated by the Shipment Release Rules job, the system also marks the shipment as cross-dock eligible. No other shipment fields are modified.

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How Shipment Release Rules Work

Prerequisites

Shipment Release Rule Criteria

Shipment Release Rule Properties