Platform Primitives
The Shopify mechanics the work rests on — the Section Rendering API, metafields, cart permalinks and the rest.
Storefront search
Storefront search is Shopify's full search endpoint. A theme submits a query to `/search` with optional type and filter parameters, and the platform returns matching products, articles and pages as a paginated result set the search template renders. Unlike the predictive endpoint, it is a real page at a real URL, and it accepts the same facets a collection does.
2 builds
Structured data (JSON-LD)
Structured data is machine-readable markup that states what a page is about in a shared vocabulary. On the web that vocabulary is schema.org, and the format search and answer engines prefer is JSON-LD — a script block declaring typed entities such as Product, Offer, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList, along with the relationships between them, so a parser doesn't have to infer meaning from layout.
3 builds
Theme app extension blocks
App blocks are interface an app ships as part of a theme app extension. A merchant adds one to a section from the theme editor, and the app owns its markup, its assets and its settings from then on. The theme decides only where blocks are allowed, by accepting the `@app` block type in a section's schema.
12 builds
Theme architecture
Theme architecture is the fixed file structure a Shopify theme has to follow — layouts, templates, section groups, sections, blocks, snippets, assets, config and locales, each with a defined role and a defined place in the render order. The platform loads a theme by that structure rather than by configuration, so where a file lives determines when — and whether — it runs.
3 builds
Theme blocks
Theme blocks are the repeatable, merchant-arrangeable units inside a Shopify section. A section's schema declares block types with their own settings and limits, and a merchant adds, removes and reorders instances in the theme editor. Liquid renders them in one loop that branches on block type, so a single section can serve many page compositions without a template per variation.
49 builds
Theme locales and internationalization
Theme locales are the JSON files holding a theme's translated strings, resolved at render time by the translation filter. One set covers the copy a shopper reads and a second covers the labels a merchant sees in the theme editor. With market and locale routing, they are how one theme serves several languages and regions without being forked.
1 builds
Theme sections
Sections are the Liquid files a Shopify page is assembled from. Each carries markup, its own scoped styles and scripts, and a schema declaring the settings and block types a merchant can edit. Templates and section groups list which sections render where, so page composition is data a merchant owns rather than code a developer changes.
3 builds
Theme settings schema
The theme settings schema declares the store-wide options a Shopify theme exposes in the theme editor — colors, typography, layout, cart behavior — as a JSON file of grouped, typed inputs. Values are saved per theme and read anywhere in Liquid through the settings object, which makes it the one place a merchant changes something that applies to every page.
1 builds
Web Pixels API
The Web Pixels API is Shopify's sanctioned way to run analytics code. A pixel runs in a sandbox with no access to the page's DOM, subscribes to standard customer events — product viewed, cart updated, checkout completed — and receives them from Shopify rather than scraping the storefront. It also honors the shop's customer privacy settings and consent state.
4 builds
content_for_header
`content_for_header` is the Liquid object every theme must output in the head. Shopify replaces it with the scripts and tags the platform and the installed apps require, including analytics, checkout, app embeds and preview tooling. Its contents aren't editable, and they change whenever apps change, so a theme's own head markup has to work around it.
1 builds