Categories Workspace

What It Is

Categories Workspace is the MerchantDrafts admin area for WooCommerce product categories.

It manages two different category-level assets:

• the public WooCommerce category description
• the internal MerchantDrafts Category Context Summary

Why It Exists

Category-level information sits between store identity and product-specific emphasis.

In practical terms:

• Business Context explains the whole store
• Category Context explains the product group
• What to emphasize explains the specific product angle

This gives MerchantDrafts a cleaner middle layer for product writing.

What Operators Can Do

In Categories Workspace, operators can:

• review WooCommerce product categories in one catalogue-style view
• select multiple categories
• generate customer-facing category descriptions in bulk
• generate internal Category Context summaries in bulk
• review and edit both fields before writeback
• write descriptions back to WooCommerce
• write Category Context summaries into MerchantDrafts storage

Catalogue UI

The Categories catalogue now follows the same general interaction model as the Products Workspace:

• the main workspace tab is now labeled Categories Catalogue for clarity, to distinguish it from future parallel workspace catalogues such as Manufacturers
• a sticky table header with a compact action row above it
• inline row actions for Open and Generate / Generated
• a Columns dropdown with saved visibility preferences
• default hidden Uncategorized
• a global Show Full Text / Compact Text toggle for Description and Category Context cells
• generated drafts are now reviewed inline below the table instead of inside a separate Generated content tab

The Categories action row is intentionally lighter than Products, but it follows the same left-to-right pattern:

• Find on the left
• Display controls in the middle
• Clear filters / Columns / Sort on the right

What Category Context Is

Category Context is not the same as the public category description.

It is an internal summary that tells MerchantDrafts:

• what this category represents
• what kind of shopper intent it serves
• which product angles matter across the group
• what vocabulary or framing should be preferred

It is used as a prompt layer for core product content only in v1.

What It Changes In Product Writing

For core product content, MerchantDrafts now uses this order:

1. Business Context
2. Category Context
3. Writing Pattern
4. Product Emphasis

If no saved Category Context exists for the product's assigned categories, MerchantDrafts falls back to the previous behavior.

Product Editor Visibility

The product editor now exposes the inherited Category Context in two places:

• Advanced Options left sidebar — a Category Context status row with an Open Workspace link
• Info tab — an active-layer row between Business Context (Brand DNA) and Writing Pattern

This is not just a UI note. It reflects the actual runtime rule MerchantDrafts already uses for product generation.

Multi-Category Products

When a product belongs to multiple categories, MerchantDrafts uses one effective Category Context in v1.

The selection rule is:

• prefer the deepest assigned category
• if depth ties, use a stable deterministic order

It does not merge all category contexts together in v1.