Theme Overview
A Dukanext theme is any web application that uses the Dukanext API as its commerce backend. You own the full UI and routing layer; the API handles data, auth, and transactions.
What the API provides
| Category | What's included |
|---|---|
| Catalog | Products, categories, variants, search, best sellers |
| Cart | Cart hydration (current prices and stock), cart-based recommendations |
| Checkout | Order creation, coupon validation, shipping |
| Payments | Pesapal and Dukanext Wallet flows, payment callbacks |
| Customer | Email OTP login, profile, order history, notifications |
| Content | Admin-defined content models (hero banners, FAQs, announcements) |
| Store | Settings (name, logo, colors, currency), policies, sitemap, meta tags |
What you build
- All UI, routing, and page structure
- Client-side cart state
- The checkout UI and payment redirect handling
- Customer auth UI (email input, OTP input, account pages)
- Any page-specific logic (filters, sorting, pagination UI)
Framework
There is no required framework. The API is plain REST over HTTPS. Build with whatever you're shipping — Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, Remix, or plain HTML.
Request model
Browser → (x-api-key) → Dukanext API
Every request carries the API key in the x-api-key header. The API validates the key, checks the request origin against the key's allowlist, and confirms Dev Mode is on before returning data.
Next steps
- Shop Health Check — the first call every theme must make before anything else
- Handling Errors — how to handle every API error in the UI
- Customer Auth Flow — the 3-step email OTP login