Horizon, Theme App Extensions & Sidekick

Extensions
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We’ve been diving into Shopify’s new Horizon theme framework, and it’s awesome to see the direction this is heading — performance-first, componentized, and Sidekick-integrated.

As a team building Theme App Extensions, we’re looking to better understand how these changes impact us as app developers, and how to future-proof our approach.

A few open questions we’d love insights on from the community or anyone at Shopify:
@Nick_Lepine Some of the questions I spoke to you in person at editions also.

:puzzle_piece: Adapting to Horizon

  • How do we change extensions to be compatible with both horizon and older themes?
  • Are there new constraints or best practices emerging for extension blocks in this setup?

:brain: Making Extensions Sidekick-Friendly

  • Can Sidekick interact with or enhance actions inside Theme App Extensions today?
  • Is there a roadmap or SDK coming for partners to expose contextual actions to Sidekick?

:gear: Controlling Extension Settings Programmatically

  • Can we provide dynamic defaults in our theme app extension schemas (e.g., based on merchant plan or detected storefront config)?
  • Given that Asset API access is still restricted, are there future plans to allow apps to programmatically control or initialize theme settings safely? It will also help for merchant to tell sidekick to update the extension if we were able to control this!
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Great questions. I dont have much input, other than I’d guess the best you can do to support Sidekick, and what not, would be use of upcoming Admin Intents.

The only/best thing I could find on it with a quick search was a tweet by none other than @Dylan: https://x.com/ctrlaltdylan/status/1929539738194592119.

Also would recommend to post your questions to the Liquid AMA: https://x.com/benjaminsehl/status/1932822329702166721

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Really good questions. I foresee a future where Sidekick is integrated into all aspects of Shopify’s platform - including apps.

If apps could publish MCP definitions for Sidekick to consume, that would empower merchants to interface with all of their apps in addition to Shopify’s platform from a single interface.

Now that would be a powerful offering.

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If apps could publish MCP definitions for Sidekick to consume

Now we talkin’

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Yeah this would be amazing!!

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Yeah the intents is looking promising - waiting to hear more there - @Dylan summarised the editions piece pretty neatly there. I somehow fear it will not be for extensions but for more like app admin pages from what the demo looked like in the editions launch. Thanks for the tips will drop this into the liquid AMA

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