developmentStoreCreate mutation fails: Partner API token redirects to login page

Shopify App Store
1

Hi everyone,

I am a Shopify Partner and I am trying to automate part of my client onboarding workflow. My goal is to automatically create a new Development Store when a client fills out a form on my website, and then notify myself to complete the setup.

I am using a backend script to send a GraphQL POST request to the Shopify organization endpoint: [https://partners.shopify.com/](https://partners.shopify.com/)[MY_ORGANIZATION_ID]/api/graphql

I am using the developmentStoreCreate mutation and passing my Partner API client access token in the X-Shopify-Access-Token header.

The Problem: Instead of receiving a clean JSON response with the new store details, the API returns a 200 OK status but the response body contains the raw HTML of a Shopify login page (<!DOCTYPE html> ... data-controller="account_lookup").

When checking my Partner Dashboard under Settings > Partner API clients, I can see permissions for managing apps, themes, and viewing financial data, but there is no specific permission available for “Managing Stores”.

Additional Context: I previously looked into inviting clients automatically as staff members once a store is live. However, I found out that inviting staff members through the Admin API is currently not supported. While the Admin API has a StaffMember object, it is read-only; there is no mutation available to programmatically create or send staff invitations. Because staff members must still be invited manually via Settings > Users > Add staff in the Shopify admin, automating the actual creation of the development store itself has become even more critical for my workflow to save time.

My Questions:

  1. Is the developmentStoreCreate mutation available for regular Partner accounts, or is this restricted to Shopify Plus / Strategic Partners?

  2. Why is the API redirection forcing an HTML login page instead of authenticating via the token?

  3. Is there an additional setting or approval required from Shopify Support to enable store creation permissions for my Partner API client?

Any insights or help on how to successfully authenticate this request would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Daan

2

I don’t see developmentStoreCreate exposed in any docs, where have you got this from?

3

Helllo Luke,

Thankyou for your reply.

I chatted with support from the Partners and that word was mentioned. Maybe she meant another word to do that.

Do you know anything about making automaticly partners shops through a form? I want my customers to create their website through Shopify partners, so I don’t need to do that. When I am ready, I am transfer the ownership to the applier.

4

As far as I am aware it is not currently possible to programmatically create a development store.