---
title: Overview
date: 2026-06-13T16:01:00+01:00
author: John Henry Donovan
canonical_url: "https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/order-lifecycle/docs/getting-started/overview"
section: Plugins
---
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Documentation

Documentation

# Overview

Order Lifecycle is a Craft Commerce plugin that tracks and visualises every event in an order's journey, from cart creation right through to final payment.

## What is Order Lifecycle?

Order Lifecycle keeps a constant eye on an order's lifecycle, recording every significant event as it happens, including:

- **Cart Events**: Cart creation, line item additions/updates/removals
- **Order Events**: Order completion, status changes, payment status
- **Customer Events**: Email updates, address changes
- **Payment Events**: Transaction attempts, successes, and failures
- **Email Events**: Notifications sent and delivery status

## Key Features

### Complete Event History

Every interaction with an order gets recorded with full context, including timestamps and state snapshots.

### Visual Timeline

A clear, easy-to-follow timeline view shows all events in chronological order, with visual indicators for the different event types.

### Performance Statistics

Metrics are calculated automatically, showing:

- Time from cart creation to order completion
- Payment processing duration
- Order fulfillment timing

### Detailed Snapshots

Each event captures the complete state at that moment, which makes it easy to:

- Debug payment issues
- Understand customer behavior
- Analyze order flow problems
- Audit changes

### AI Insights

On-demand Claude-powered analysis for individual orders and store-wide metrics. Click a button on any order to get a plain-language summary of friction points, payment behaviour, and anomalies. The store-level dashboard widget covers conversion rates, abandonment, email reliability, and more, across a configurable date range.

## Use Cases

- **Debugging**: Quickly work out where orders fail or get stuck
- **Analytics**: Get a proper handle on your order funnel and conversion rates
- **Customer Support**: See exactly what happened with a customer's order
- **Compliance**: Keep detailed audit trails for all order activities
- **Optimization**: Spot the bottlenecks in your checkout process

## Next Steps

- [Installation Guide](https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/order-lifecycle/docs/getting-started/installation)
- [Configuration](https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/order-lifecycle/docs/getting-started/configuration)
- [Performance](http://localhost:5174/order-lifecycle/guide/performance.html)
- [Event Tracking](https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/order-lifecycle/docs/guide/event-tracking)
- [AI Insights](https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/order-lifecycle/docs/guide/ai-insights)

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