Section presets

Definition

Presets are the starting configurations a section offers in Shopify's theme editor. A section's schema can declare named presets holding default settings and a default set of blocks, and those presets are what a merchant sees when adding the section to a page. Without one, a section can't be added at all — it only appears where a template already places it.

Documented at https://shopify.dev/docs/storefronts/themes/architecture/sections/section-schema#presets.

How we've used it

Presets matter most when a section gets forked. Adding a layout option to a section that is already merchandised across a dozen templates is risky, because the editor keys saved settings to the section type. The conservative move is a second section published beside the original under its own preset name, so existing pages keep their settings and merchandisers migrate one template at a time, disabling the old instance when the new one is configured. The preset is also where a section's honest default lives — the density, the block set and the placeholder copy someone starts from. We treat that default as part of the build rather than an afterthought, because it's the version that ends up on most pages.

Builds using it

One gated build uses it; its page follows.

Related entities

Theme blocks · Theme sections · Liquid section schema and settings