theme init — Start a New Theme

Scaffolding a Theme Project

shopify theme init creates a new directory with the full Online Store 2.0 folder structure. By default it clones Shopify's Skeleton reference theme — a minimal, educational starting point.

# Create from Skeleton (default)
shopify theme init my-custom-theme
cd my-custom-theme

# Clone Dawn — Shopify's production reference theme
shopify theme init my-dawn-theme \
  --clone-url https://github.com/Shopify/dawn.git

# Initialize git immediately
 git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial theme from Dawn"

After init, you have assets/, config/, layout/, locales/, sections/, snippets/, and templates/. Open the folder in VS Code, install the Shopify Liquid extension, and run shopify theme dev to start developing.

• Skeleton — minimal, best for learning and greenfield projects
• Dawn — full-featured, best for production forks and pattern reference
• Horizon — newer Shopify reference theme (check Shopify GitHub for latest)