I used to create custom apps for my customers’ store admins, allowing me to query the API or run scripts. For example, to mass create or edit metafields, update the customer database, and determine customer gender.
Since creating custom apps is no longer possible, I am reviewing the process to generate an admin token. From my understanding, when creating a private app from the store development dashboard, I can obtain that token using the /admin/oauth/access_token route, which works for me.
However, for a private app created from the partner development dashboard, I don’t see any way to follow a similar process. If the app does not expose a public route for the OAuth process and lacks a database to store the session token, I cannot obtain the admin token. I understand the advantage of not keeping an everlasting admin token, but I would assume that if the app is installed on a specific store, I should be able to get an admin token for that store.
You can use the client credentials grant to get an access token for simple merchant apps. This doesn’t require a public route or a complex database setup to store the tokens.
Hey, I also created the custom app through the Shopify Partner (dev) dashboard, but since the Partner account is not owned by the store owner, the credential grant request isn’t working for me. Is there any other way to obtain the access token?
Hi @TerenceShopify, thanks for the prompt reply.
The flow you’re suggesting is the one I’m also mentionning but it does not work for custom app created from the partner dev dashboard..
Client credentials is only available for apps developed by your own organization and installed in stores that you own. Public or custom apps must use token exchange or authorization code. This tutorial shows you how to manually implement the client credentials grant type to acquire an access token for your app. [Source]
That’s why i’m looking for an equivalent for apps created from the partner dashboard.
Also, it is not clear how to access the dev dashboard of a store as a partner
I had the confirmation from the support that partners cannot access the dev dashboard of a store. Source
I rarely complain about changes but here, I really don’t understand the logic. Only store owners and staff can access the dev dashboard and not partners. I’d be surprised to know how many store owners or their staff have the ability the create and maintain custom apps which require understanding app development concepts like scopes or API secrets. This will lead store owners giving full access to external users and potentially opens a huge security door and it’s making partner job a lot more complex. 
The inability of a collaborator to access the dev dashboard for a merchant organization is a current limitation in our collaborator system and is not meant to be a permanent arrangement. We’re aware that this is creating frustrations for both collaborator partners and your merchant clients and are going to be addressing it.
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