📜 Learning Log — Shopify App from Zero

Starting point: Nothing installed on the computer. No Partner account. No knowledge about Shopify. All we have: the ability to write code and a bit of marketing instinct. This file is the record of the road from that point to an app that makes money on the App Store.

Read first: Shopify 101 · Terms: E-commerce Glossary Depth: Shopify Anatomy · Market data: Ecosystem Data Published at: https://shopifyjourney.cemalbuilds.com

Rules

Run it first, understand it later. No reading the docs cover to cover; look things up when stuck.
Session = 60–90 min, one goal. The goal must be "something that works", not "learning X".
A session that isn't written down didn't happen. Five lines into this file at the end of every session.
Every phase has a concrete output. No output, the phase isn't done.
Technical phase short, merchant phase long. Learning the platform and then shipping something nobody wants is the number one cause of death in this business.

Roadmap

Phase	Duration	What I'm learning	Counts as done when
0 Concepts	2 days	The Shopify ecosystem, what an app is, how the money flows, the architecture behind it	101 + Anatomy read; I can explain the 5 sentences in §8 and "why a webhook arrives twice" in my own words
1 First working app	1 day	Partner account, dev store, CLI, `app dev`	The app opens in the dev store admin
2 Anatomy	2 days	OAuth, session token, embedded, App Bridge	I've added my own page to the template and can draw the path of a request
3 Data	3 days	Admin GraphQL API, scopes	A page that lists products + updates one of them
4 Events	2 days	Webhooks, app uninstall cleanup	`orders/create` is caught and written to the DB
5 Problem	2 weeks	Merchant interviews, demand test (data)	10 merchant conversations + a one-sentence problem + 1 number
6 MVP	3 weeks	My own app	3 merchants installed by hand, using it
7 Money	3 days	Billing API, trial, plans	The first payment came in
8 Launch	1 week	App Store listing, review	Submitted for review

Phases 0–4 are for learning the platform, throwaway code. The real product starts in Phase 5. Don't build anything permanent before you reach Phase 5.

Sessions

Session 0 — 2026-08-25 · Infrastructure: the journal site is live

Goal: Have the place where I'll publish what I learn ready. Did: SvelteKit + adapter-node, markdown-based journal, deployed with Coolify/Nixpacks. Learned:

Nixpacks + .npmrc engine-strict=true + a loose engines = silent npm ci failure. Pin Node in three places: engines, .nvmrc, NIXPACKS_NODE_VERSION.
The Coolify health check looks for curl/wget inside the container; the Nixpacks Node image doesn't have them.
Traefik "no available server" = no healthy container behind it. Don't look at the build settings, look at the deploy log. Stuck on: While diagnosing the 503 I focused on the Coolify UI settings and read the log too late. Next step: Phase 0 — understand what Shopify is.

Session 1 — ____ · Phase 0: The picture in my head

Goal: Be able to explain what I'm going to build without writing a single line of code.

To do (about 45 min):

Read 00-SHOPIFY-101.md, then 02-SHOPIFY-ANATOMY.md.
Go to https://apps.shopify.com. Pick a category (e.g. "Store design" or "Marketing"). Examine 5 apps and note the following: what does it do, what's the price, how many reviews has it got, what's the top complaint? → Complaints (1–2 star reviews) are worth gold; that's where the gap is.
Do the same once more for free apps: why are they free, how do they make money?
Memorize the "3 formulas" section in 01-ECOMMERCE-GLOSSARY.md.
Look at the tables in 03-ECOSYSTEM-DATA.md §4 (merchant app budget) and §5 (churn). Re-evaluate the 5 apps you examined against these numbers: what's the price, which revenue band of merchant is it selling to, how many reviews does it have?

Check question (if you can't answer it, the phase isn't done):

"What is a Shopify app, how many directions of traffic are there between my server and Shopify, who does the money flow from and to?" "Why is the rate limit measured in points rather than request count? Why can a webhook arrive twice?"

Did: Learned: Stuck on: Next step:

Session 2 — ____ · Phase 1: The first app opens in the dev store

Goal: Get shopify app dev running, with the app showing up embedded in the admin panel. No understanding the code — just seeing something that works.

Steps, in order:

Partner account (free): https://partners.shopify.com → Sign up. It asks for country/business details; you can open one as an individual too.
Create a Development store: Partners dashboard → Stores → Add store → Development store → choose "Start with test data" (so you get fake products/orders). Note the address: xxx.myshopify.com.

Install the CLI (macOS):

brew tap shopify/shopify && brew install shopify-cli
shopify version

(Alternative: npm install -g @shopify/cli)

Create the app — Shopify's official starter template:
```
cd ~/development/Projects
shopify app init --name journey-app --template reactRouter --flavor typescript
cd journey-app
```
On the first run it will ask you to log in to your Partner account in the browser.
Run it:
```
shopify app dev
```
Let it pick the dev store. Click the Preview URL printed in the terminal → Install app → the app should open inside the admin. That moment is the end of Phase 1.
Wander around the file structure for 10 min — don't try to understand it, just see what lives where: shopify.app.toml (app config, scopes) · app/routes/ (pages) · app/shopify.server.ts (authentication) · prisma/ (session storage).

Likely snags:

Tunnel/HTTPS warning → the CLI opens its own tunnel, leave it as is.
"App already installed" → shopify app dev --reset
Node version error → make sure Node 20+ is installed (node -v).

Did: Learned: Stuck on: Next step:

Session 3 — ____ · Phase 2: Where does the request come from?

Goal: Be able to draw how a request gets from the admin to my code. To do: Follow the authenticate.admin(request) call inside app/shopify.server.ts. Add a line to app/routes/app._index.tsx that prints the store name. Refresh the page, see the change. Check question: "Why a session token instead of a cookie?"

Did: Learned: Stuck on: Next step:

Concept glossary (in my own words)

If you can't write a concept down in your own words, you haven't learned it. The official definitions are in 101; your version goes here.

Concept	My sentence
Embedded app
Session token
Scopes
Webhook

Open questions (date them when you find the answer)

Why is the template React Router? Can you build a Shopify app with SvelteKit, and is it worth the trouble?
The template has Prisma + SQLite; where should sessions be stored in prod?
What's the minimum set of scopes you can get by with? How much do excess permissions lower the install rate?
How long does the App Store review process take, and what are the most common rejection reasons?
What's the average uninstall (churn) rate? Which category is stickier?