How to connect Shopify

The setup guide, in full

Word for word what the connect form asks, in the order it asks. Nothing here wants your Shopify password — the credentials below are ones you create and can revoke.

1. 1

   What's your store name?

   The short name in your admin address — the part after /store/.

   1. Open your Shopify admin and look at the address bar.
   2. It reads admin.shopify.com/store/na70yq-bn — copy the part after /store/, e.g. na70yq-bn.
   3. On the older address (na70yq-bn.myshopify.com/admin) it is the part before .myshopify.com. Either is fine.
2. 2

   Connect your Shopify app

   About five minutes inside Shopify. Do the four parts below in order — an app that is created but never INSTALLED cannot publish anything.

   Fill in ONE of the two: the app's Client ID and Secret (what Shopify issues today), or a legacy Admin API token if your store still has one. You do not need both.

   Part 1 — Create the app

   1. In your Shopify admin open Settings, then Apps, and click the grey "Develop apps" button in the top right. The button below goes straight there.
   2. On the "App development" page click "Build apps in Dev Dashboard". That opens dev.shopify.com in a NEW TAB — a different site, dark background. Keep your admin tab open, you come back to it.
   3. Click "Create app", top right.
   4. Two cards appear either side of the word OR. Ignore the left one, "Start with Shopify CLI" — that is a developer tool. In the right card, "Start from Dev Dashboard", type SearchBlueprint Blog into "App name" and click "Create".

   Part 2 — Let it write blog posts

   1. Shopify drops you straight onto a screen headed "Create version". Scroll to the card called "API access".
   2. Type read_content,write_content into the empty "Scopes" box. (Or click "Select scopes", search for content, tick read_content and write_content under Admin API, and click "Done" — do not tick the Storefront API row.)
   3. Leave every other setting as it is. Click "Release", then "Release" again in the "Release this new version?" box — it takes two clicks.

   Part 3 — Copy the Client ID and Secret

   1. "Settings" is the last item in the app's OWN sidebar on dev.shopify.com (not your Shopify admin's Settings). Open it and find the "Credentials" card.
   2. Copy "Client ID" with the icon beside it and paste it below.
   3. The next row is labelled just "Secret" and shows dots — click the eye to reveal it, copy it, paste it below. Do not press the red "Rotate": that replaces the secret and breaks anything already using it.

   Part 4 — INSTALL it on your store. This is the step people miss.

   1. Creating an app does not install it. Until this is done we get "app not installed" and nothing can publish.
   2. Paste the Client ID above first — the button below then opens your store's install screen directly.
   3. By hand instead: click the app's name at the top of its sidebar to reach "Overview", then "Install app" in the top-right corner of the "Installs" card (the number under it reads 0), and pick your store.
   4. The install screen shows a yellow "This app hasn't been reviewed" warning. That is normal for an app you built yourself. Click the black "Install".
   5. Shopify shows no confirmation and often lands on a blank page. You know it worked when "Installs" on the app's Overview reads 1, or the app is listed under Settings -> Apps in your admin.

   Open the Shopify Dev Dashboard

   Older stores only: a legacy token

   1. Skip this unless your store still shows an "API credentials" tab on a custom app — stores created recently do not have one.
   2. If yours does, reveal the Admin API access token there (it starts with shpat_) and paste it into the last box below instead of the Client ID and Secret.

If it doesn’t connect

The checklist the connect form shows when a test fails. Check each one in order.

• The app is INSTALLED on the store, not just created — its Overview page in the Dev Dashboard must show Installs: 1, and it must be listed under Settings -> Apps in your admin.
• The version you released has the read_content and write_content scopes.
• The Client ID and the Secret came from the same app's Settings page, and neither was rotated afterwards.
• The store name above is the store you installed the app on.
• The store has at least one blog (Content -> Blog posts).