.css.liquid assets serve stale theme settings after a theme update

Shopify CLI and Libraries
1

I have reproduced the issue on the latest CLI version.

Yes, I am on the latest version

I have searched existing posts and this report is not a duplicate.

Yes, this isn’t a duplicate

In which of these areas are you experiencing a problem?

Theme

Expected behavior

Updating an existing theme via shopify theme push or the Admin Asset API should have the Liquid-rendered stylesheet assets (assets/*.css.liquid) serve any settings that were changed in config/settings.data.json.

Actual behavior

The .css.liquid assets keep serving the previous theme settings. The Theme Editor shows the new values immediately, but the live or preview store still shows the old values.

Reproduction steps

  1. Start with any theme containing a .css.liquid asset that renders setting A, e.g. body { background: {{ settings.shop_bg_color }}; }.
  2. Change the setting locally in settings_data.json to B. Push to the same theme.
  3. Observe: Theme Editor shows B; assets/styles.css on the live site or preview still contains A, and the ?v= param has not changed.
  4. Push again with no changes. Stylesheet ?v= changes and now contains B.

Also:

A settings-only Asset API write (e.g. PUT /admin/api/2025-01/themes/{id}/assets.json of only config/settings_data.json) reproduces the same stale stylesheet. Across repeated value changes, the stylesheet consistently served the previous write. Unlike the CLI push, it is not corrected on the second push.

Verbose output

Operating system

Mac OS Golden Gate

CLI version

4.8.0

Shell

zsh

Nodejs version

22.23.1

What language and version are you using in your application?

Ruby 3.3.11

4

This looks like the known CDN caching issue with Liquid-rendered assets (js.liquid/css.liquid), not specific to settings_data.json, there’s a long-running thread on it and Shopify support has acknowledged it without a lasting fix. Renaming the asset file and reverting the name usually forces a cache bust if you need it right now.

5

Hey @bryan-pxu can you let me know if the bug still occurs. We recently did some changes (not just specific to your shop) that should avoid using the stale cache.

If it’s happening please message me the specific shop it happened to and approximately the time so i can debug it further. Thanks!

6

Hi Alok, it appears to be fixed. Thank you!