Deploy app components in a CD pipeline

If you have app configuration and extensions that you want to deploy to Shopify regularly, then you can integrate Shopify CLI into your CI/CD pipeline to programmatically deploy your app components using the deploy command.

Note that the deploy command deploys everything in your project at once. You can't deploy only some extensions. You also can't deploy your app configuration on its own.

Anchor to What you'll learnWhat you'll learn

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to set up your CI/CD pipeline to deploy your app programmatically. To do so, you'll gather the information necessary to run Shopify CLI commands, and then add a step to your CI/CD pipeline that installs Shopify CLI and deploys your app components.

Anchor to How it worksHow it works

Your app configuration and all extensions, including extensions created in the Partner Dashboard, are versioned together as a single app version.

When you run the deploy command using Shopify CLI, an app version is created and released. You can revert to a previous app version at any time.

Releasing an app version replaces the current active version that's served to stores that have your app installed. It might take several minutes for app users to be upgraded to the new version.

If you want to create a version without releasing it to users, then run the deploy command with a --no-release flag.

You can release the unreleased app version using Shopify CLI's release command, or through the Partner Dashboard.

Anchor to RequirementsRequirements

• Scaffold an app that uses Shopify CLI 3.0 or higher.

Anchor to Step 1: Generate variables for deploymentStep 1: Generate variables for deployment

To target the app that you want to deploy to, you need to gather your app's client ID.

1. Navigate to your app directory.

2. Run the following command:

   Terminal

   Copy

   $

   $

   shopify app deploy

An env file is generated at the root of your project. It contains the client ID (API key) for your app and the ID of each of the extensions in your app.

Anchor to Step 2: Generate a CLI authentication tokenStep 2: Generate a CLI authentication token

You can create a new CLI authentication token through the Partner Dashboard.

Tokens are managed at the Partner organization level. You can have only two CLI authentication tokens for your Partner organization. If you want to create more than two authentication tokens, then you need to delete an existing authentication token.

Anchor to Generate a CLI authentication token in the Partner DashboardGenerate a CLI authentication token in the Partner Dashboard

1. From your Partner Dashboard, navigate to Settings > CLI token, and then click Manage tokens.

2. From the Token expiration drop-down list, select an expiration for the token.

3. Click Generate token.

4. In the Tokens section, click the Copy button to copy the access token to your clipboard.

   This token value will be passed as a parameter in your Shopify CLI automation.

For security reasons, the token is only visible immediately after it's created. If you lose your token, then you need to delete your existing token and then generate a new token.

Anchor to Step 3: Integrate Shopify CLI into your pipelineStep 3: Integrate Shopify CLI into your pipeline

After you retrieve your deployment variables and CLI authentication token, you can integrate Shopify CLI into your continuous deployment pipeline using your CI/CD provider.

The CD pipeline step should install Shopify CLI.

To deploy to Shopify programmatically using your CD pipeline step, include the following:

• An environment variable that contains the authentication token that you generated in the Partner Dashboard.

• The client ID for your app (SHOPIFY_API_KEY), which you generated in step 1.

• A step that sets up Node.js and installs your project's Node dependencies. The package manager that you use should match your project's lockfile.

  • If you're using GitHub Actions, then you can use actions/setup-node.
  • If you're using CircleCI, then you can use circleci/node.

• Steps that install the other dependencies for your project.

• A step that runs the CLI deploy command with the --force flag set.

  Where possible, you should protect the authentication token and client ID values by masking them or storing them as secrets.

Anchor to Link commits to app versionsLink commits to app versions

You can link a source control commit to an app version by adding the --source-control-url=<url> flag to the deploy command. The link that you provide appears in the details page for the app version in the Partner Dashboard. This information allows team members to easily view the corresponding source commit or revision for an app version.

To learn how to use this flag to provide a GitHub commit URL for an app version in your CI/CD workflow, refer to examples.

Anchor to Additional project dependenciesAdditional project dependencies

The dependencies that are required to deploy your app extension depend on the technologies that you use to build the extension. Below are examples of common additional dependencies you'll need:

Anchor to ExamplesExamples

The sections below provide examples of common CI/CD pipeline tools: GitHub Actions and CircleCI.

Anchor to GitHub ActionsGitHub Actions

Below is an example of a step that you might add to your GitHub Actions workflow. It deploys app components to Shopify when code is pushed to the main branch.

The package manager that you use in your GitHub Action should match your project's lockfile.

Anchor to CircleCICircleCI

The following config file defines a job that's triggered by a CircleCI workflow.

The package manager that you use in your job should match your project's lockfile.