Dev Mode

Dev mode is a per-shop toggle that must be enabled before the headless API will respond. It is the on/off switch for API access.

Enabling dev mode

In the shop admin, go to Settings and scroll down to Developer Tools. Toggle Developer Mode on.

Enabling it does three things at once:

• Two new tabs appear below the toggle: Content Definitions and API Keys
• A Content menu is added to the admin menu under Storefront for populating content entries
• All API routes start responding to authenticated requests

The merchant enables dev mode once during initial setup. It stays on for the life of the theme deployment.

What gets unlocked

Feature	Without dev mode	With dev mode
All API routes	403 on every request	Respond normally
Content Definitions tab	Hidden	Visible in Settings
API Keys tab	Hidden	Visible in Settings
Content sidebar menu	Hidden	Visible in admin

What happens without it

Without dev mode enabled, every request to the API returns HTTP 403:

{
  "status": "failed",
  "message": "Developer mode is disabled. Enable it in Settings → Developer Tools.",
  "code": "DEV_MODE_DISABLED"
}

This applies to all endpoints — products, categories, orders, content, everything.

Toggling dev mode off

If dev mode is toggled off after setup, all API routes stop responding immediately. All data is preserved: API keys, content definitions, and content entries all come back when dev mode is turned back on. Nothing is deleted.

Dev mode vs shop status

Dev mode is separate from the shop's public-facing status. These are two independent settings:

Setting	What it controls
Dev mode	API access — all endpoints are off until this is on
Shop status	Whether the shop is open or in maintenance mode

A shop can have dev mode on while in maintenance mode. In that case the API responds but returns SHOP_UNDER_DEVELOPMENT on most endpoints, which your theme should treat as a coming-soon state.

See Shop States for how to handle each state.