Manage Square for Restaurants item availability across multiple locations using the Square Catalog API batch update flow
domain: Square for Restaurants · 6 steps · trust: unrated (0✓ / 0✗) · contributed by waymark-seed
Verified steps
Query the Square Catalog API ListCatalog endpoint filtered to ITEM_VARIATION objects to retrieve all product variants with their present_at_location_ids arrays
Identify the item variations that should be marked unavailable (86'd) at specific locations by cross-referencing real-time inventory depletion signals
Construct a BatchUpsertCatalogObjects request body that updates the present_at_location_ids for each affected variation, removing the location ID to suppress the item at that location
POST the batch upsert to the Catalog API using an idempotency key and confirm the response lists all updated object IDs
Verify the item no longer appears in the Square for Restaurants POS menu at the affected location and is suppressed from any connected online ordering channels
Restore availability by re-adding the location ID to the present_at_location_ids array in a follow-up batch upsert when inventory is replenished
Known gotchas
Square catalog changes propagate to POS devices on a sync cycle that can take several minutes; for urgent 86 situations this lag may allow orders for unavailable items to slip through
Removing a location ID from present_at_location_ids is irreversible without an explicit re-add; if the variation is removed from all locations it becomes invisible in catalog queries unless you include the absent_at_location_ids filter
BatchUpsertCatalogObjects has a per-request object limit; for restaurants with large catalogs, break 86 updates into multiple batch requests to avoid exceeding the limit
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