Skip to main content

Preview Themes

Every branch that isn't deployed to your live theme gets its own preview theme — an unpublished theme on your Shopify store that you and your team can view without affecting customers.

Naming​

Preview themes are named after the branch with a [TD] prefix:

[TD] feature/new-header
[TD] develop

You'll see them listed under Online Store → Themes in your Shopify admin alongside your live theme.

Lifecycle​

  • One theme per branch. The first deployment of a branch creates its preview theme; subsequent deployments to the same branch update the same theme rather than creating new ones.
  • Recreated if deleted. If a preview theme is deleted from the Shopify admin, the next deployment of that branch creates a fresh one automatically.
  • Not deleted automatically. Theme Deploy does not remove preview themes when branches are merged or deleted. Clean up old [TD] themes from your Shopify admin when you no longer need them — Shopify stores have a limit on the number of themes (20 on most plans).

Preview URLs​

When a deployment completes, the dashboard shows a preview link of the form:

https://your-store.myshopify.com/?preview_theme_id={theme_id}

Share this link with teammates or clients to review the branch on the real store, with real products and settings, before merging.

tip

Because preview themes use your live theme's settings_data.json (injected at deploy time), previews reflect your current theme editor settings — colors, fonts, and section content look the way they do in production.