Developers · Getting started

Getting started in fifteen minutes

Once your application is approved, this takes you from an empty account to a theme in review. You change one thing on the way, so you see the whole loop before you build anything real.

Before you start

An approved account

Applications are reviewed by a person while the programme is invite-only. You get an email when yours is decided.

  • Apply to build themes. Sign in with your WhizzyCommerce account first, or create one on the way.
  • A browser. The CLI and Claude are optional, and Tools covers both.

In order

The steps

All screens are at app.whizzycommerce.com. The path under each step is the menu you follow in the Developer area.

  1. Accept the developer agreement

    Developers › Agreement

    Read it and press Accept. It covers the licence you grant, the revenue share and your support duty. The public copy is at /legal/developer-agreement.

    You can add tax and bank details later, under Developer › Payouts. You only need them before your first payout.

  2. Create a theme from the reference theme

    Developers › Themes

    Give it a slug, such as harbour, and a name. Choose Start from the reference theme. You get a complete theme that already passes every check, with its section types renamed to harbour.*.

    Every theme gets one shop of its own, its environment, made on the first preview: harbour.mywhizzy.com, filled with a sample catalogue (clothing and fashion, jewellery and accessories, home and living are the three) so you never design against placeholders. It never expires and cannot take orders.

  3. Open the browser editor

    Developer › Themes › harbour › Editor

    The file tree is on the left: theme.json, theme.css, sections/ and templates/. The editor validates as you type and lists anything it would drop.

  4. Preview the draft

    Editor › Preview

    Pick a page: home, collection, product, the cart, search, sign-in and the rest. The theme is staged on the environment as its draft and a preview opens beside the code. Walk the draft opens the whole shop on it in a new tab. Nothing is visible to anyone else, and the live demo, once there is one, does not move.

  5. Make one change

    Editor › theme.json

    Change the accent colour token and save. Then preview again.

    "tokens": {
  "colorAccent": "#2e6b4f"
}

  6. Bump the version and promote the draft

    Developer › Themes › harbour › Promote the draft

    Set "version": "1.0.0" in theme.json. The changelog is drafted for you from what changed; edit it and press Promote. The checks run in about a minute and show their results on the same screen. Approval makes the draft the live demo and the version merchants get.

Prefer a terminal? Steps 3 to 7 are also whizzy-theme init harbour, whizzy-theme dev --page=home and whizzy-theme submit -m "First version". See the CLI.

Then

What happens next

A version that passes the checks waits for a person. The target is two business days.

  • Approved: the theme is listed once its listing is complete. Fill in the listing under Developer › Themes › harbour.
  • Changes requested: the reviewer's notes appear on the theme's page and in your email. Fix, bump the patch version, and submit again.
  • Read Theme format before you build the real thing, and Releases and review before your first real submission.
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Getting started with themes · WhizzyCommerce