[!NOTE] > Devkit Memberships are now available by invitation only! We're excited to invite a select group of professionals to join the early access phase of Archetype Devkit Memberships. If you're interested in shaping the future of Shopify theme development and getting exclusive early access, sign up to the waitlist. Your feedback will help us fine-tune our offering for the broader community. Read the full announcement here for more details!
Welcome to the Archetype Devkit Public Preview!
As Shopify increasingly targets large + enterprise merchants in a cost-conscious economic climate, the value of building your Online Store with Liquid is clearer than ever. Yet, existing tools like Dawn, Shopify CLI, and the Shopify Dev Docs often fall short for advanced theme development teams.
Archetype is opening up the same tools we use to build themes that power 1000s of Shopify stores, to serve the needs of the broader professional Shopify theme design and development community.
With an open-source first approach, we aim to enhance collaboration and drive innovation across the Shopify theme development community. No more solutioning in private silos.
We all win when we collectively pool our expertise into how we build themes. Save the competetion for what we build.
The benefits of using the kit for Shopify theme design and development include:
- Streamlined Development Process: The kit provides developers with a catalogue of pre-built components and tools, allowing for faster and more efficient theme creation and customization.
- High-Quality Code Standards: Leveraging the kit ensures that the theme projects start with best practices in coding standards, which can lead to more reliable and maintainable codebases.
- Community-Sourced Innovations: By using a community-driven development kit, developers gain access to a broader range of innovative solutions and practices that have been vetted by experienced theme developers.
- Enhanced Collaboration: The open-source nature of the kit encourages collaboration among developers, which can enhance learning and result in more creative and effective theme designs.
- Consistency Across Projects: The kit helps maintain consistency in design and functionality across different themes, which is particularly beneficial for agencies managing multiple client projects.
- Future-Proofing Themes: With ongoing updates and community contributions, using the kit helps ensure that themes are compatible with the latest Shopify features and e-commerce trends.
- Easier Theme Updates: Upgrading to the latest version is easy thanks to a clear interface between components and theme
- Reduced Development Time and Costs: By streamlining the theme development process and reducing the need for custom coding, the kit can significantly lower development time and costs.
- Better Performance and Accessibility: The kit emphasizes best practices for performance optimization and accessibility, ensuring that themes provide a great user experience and meet compliance standards.
The Devkit preview is everything that is needed for Archetype to effectively communicate our vision of how to build themes + bootstrap a thriving community of professionals who share the desire to build successful businesses that ship high quality Shopify theme projects to merchants.
Devkit is a Github-centric solution. If we can do it in Github, then we will.
Here's a list of repos and what they offer:
- archetype-themes/devkit - This repo serves to act as the central community hub + documentation for all things devkit
- archetype-themes/plugin-devkit - A Shopify CLI Plugin that supports the theme component dev experience
- archetype-themes/reference-theme - A theme built with devkit consisting of an complete buyer purchase flow
- archetype-themes/reference-components - The components that power the reference theme
- archetype-themes/locales - Shared locales used across all theme projects
Our Figma file powers our component and theme design handoffs for developers.