Connecting Shopify links Instant to your store's products, collections, theme, and publishing. Without a connection you can still design layouts, but you can't use live Shopify content or publish to your storefront.
Prerequisites
An Instant account and a project.
Admin access to the Shopify store you want to connect.
Connect your store
From Overview, open Settings → Shopify and click Connect. During project setup, Instant also offers a Connect your Shopify store step.
Instant sends you to Shopify to install the Instant app.
Review the permissions Instant requests and approve them in Shopify.
After you approve, you return to Instant with your store connected.
The Agent's Connect Shopify action is different — it links products and collections to a layout after the store is already connected. See Build layouts with the Agent.
You don't type your store URL — Instant installs through the Shopify App Store and picks up your store from Shopify.
If the project has never had a paid subscription, opening the builder after connecting shows a full-screen 7-day Starter trial screen. See Upgrade your plan for what the trial includes and when it appears.
Connecting a store is permanent
Once you connect a store to a project, the two stay together. Your plan is billed through that Shopify store, so the connection can't be undone — there's no disconnect in Settings → Shopify, and uninstalling the Instant app doesn't release the store either. Reinstalling picks the same connection back up with your data intact.
A store can also only ever belong to one project, so another project can't connect a store that's already in use.
If you want to build for a different store, create a new project and connect it there.
Connection statuses
Open Settings → Shopify to see the Shopify connection card. It shows one of these statuses:
Status | What it means | Action |
Connected | The Instant app is installed and permissions are granted. | None — you're ready. |
Not connected | No store is linked yet. | Click Connect. |
Missing Shopify permissions | The app is installed but some permissions weren't granted. | Click Authorize. |
App uninstalled | The Instant app was removed from Shopify. | Click Reinstall. |
While the status is anything other than Connected, Shopify content and publishing are limited until you resolve it.
Choose a publishing theme
After connecting, go to Settings → Shopify and use the Publishing card to choose the Shopify theme Instant publishes to. If your storefront is password-protected, Instant shows a banner asking you to Configure your store password so it can access the storefront.
Pick a theme that's Online Store 2.0 compatible (often called Shopify 2.0). Publishing to an older theme fails — see Publishing troubleshooting.
Tips
Connect Shopify before building product or collection templates — those layouts need live product data.
Keep the Instant app installed. Uninstalling stops publishing and cuts off Shopify data, though the store stays linked to the project. It also ends a paid subscription: the project moves to Free and any purchased AI credits are cleared. See Downgrade or cancel.
Troubleshooting
Status shows Missing Shopify permissions
Click Authorize and approve all requested permissions on the Shopify screen.
Status shows App uninstalled
Click Reinstall and complete the Shopify authorization again. Previously published layouts stay in Shopify, but Instant can't publish updates until you reconnect.
Store is already linked to another project
A Shopify store can only ever be connected to one Instant project, so you'll see a message like "{store} is already linked to another Instant project" (or "Shopify shop is already connected to another site").
If your team should already have that project, check within your organization and ask the project owner to give you access, rather than creating a new connection.
Uninstalling the Instant app from that store won't help — the store stays linked to the project it's on.
If no one in your organization has access to the existing project, contact Instant support at [email protected].
Products or images don't appear in the builder
Confirm the connection status is Connected.
Check that the products exist and are published in Shopify.
For layouts created with Build from scratch, see Use Shopify content with elements.