themeFilesCopy ACCESS_DENIED on dev app despite approved write_themes exemption

GraphQL Admin API Troubleshooting
1

Hi everyone,

We are currently using the themeFilesCopy GraphQL mutation.

Our staging and production apps can already use this mutation successfully after Shopify approved the exemption request.

However, our development app still receives:

ACCESS_DENIED:
“The user needs write_themes and an exemption from Shopify to modify theme files.”

The dev app already:

  • has the write_themes scope

  • received exemption approval from Shopify

But only the dev environment cannot access the mutation.

Questions:

  1. Is the exemption granted per app ID rather than per organization/app family?

  2. Does each dev/staging/prod app require a separate approval?

  3. Or are development/custom apps intentionally restricted from using themeFilesCopy?

Has anyone experienced this behavior before?