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Guide · Shopify themes
Starting from a blank theme — not Dawn, not a starter kit — gives you a codebase you fully understand. Here's what the structure looks like and how to think about each layer before writing a single line of Liquid.
Why start from scratch
Forking Dawn means inheriting its CSS architecture, its JavaScript modules, its section assumptions. On a large custom project, that inherited weight becomes friction — you spend time working around the base theme rather than building the store.
Dawn ships with Web Components and a custom JS module system that adds ~80KB of JavaScript to every page. A blank theme starts at zero — you add only what the store actually needs.
A custom-built theme has a coherent architecture. Another developer picking it up doesn't need to untangle what's base theme, what's override, and what's app injection.
Folder structure
config/Two files: settings_schema.json defines every global theme setting (colors, typography, spacing scales), andsettings_data.json stores the merchant's saved values. Everything visual that should be controllable from the admin without code lives here.
layout/theme.liquid is the root document — <html>,<head>, global scripts, and the{{ content_for_layout }} tag that renders each page. Keep this file small. It runs on every request.
sections/One file per section. Each file contains the Liquid markup, a {% schema %} block that defines its settings and blocks, and optionally scoped CSS. Sections are the main unit of customization — design them to be self-contained.
templates/JSON templates (product.json, collection.json,index.json) that compose sections into pages. The merchant drags, reorders, and configures in the Theme Editor — templates define what sections are available and in what order.
snippets/Reusable Liquid partials included via{% render 'snippet-name' %}. Product cards, icon sprites, price formatting — anything used in more than one section belongs here. Keep snippets stateless: pass data in via parameters, don't rely on global scope.
assets/CSS, JavaScript, fonts, icons. Shopify serves everything from this folder via its CDN. Reference files with{{ 'file.css' | asset_url }} — the CDN fingerprints them automatically for cache busting.
The settings_schema.json pattern
Expose brand colors, font families, and base spacing as settings. Map them to CSS custom properties in theme.liquidvia an inline <style> block. The merchant changes a color in the admin — the CSS variable updates everywhere instantly, no code deploy.
settings_schema.json is an array of groups. Use headers to separate Colors, Typography, Layout, and Social. A cluttered, flat list of 40 settings is hard to use; a structured schema with clear headings isn't.
Not every design decision needs a toggle. Structural choices — grid columns, section max-width, transition duration — are better hardcoded than exposed to accidental changes. Fewer settings means fewer ways to break things.
Related
What bespoke theme development involves and what it gets you.
When starting from Dawn makes sense, and how to do it cleanly.
Objects, filters, tags, and the render pipeline.
Everything you can put in a {% schema %} block.