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Installation

VARAHI is a standard Online Store 2.0 theme. There are three ways to install it, and all three end with the theme in your Online Store → Themes list.

Theme Store

One click. The fastest path.

Shopify CLI

Best if you are developing or updating.

ZIP upload

No CLI required.

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From the Theme Store

1

Purchase or claim the theme

Add it to your store from the Shopify Theme Store.
2

Open it in the theme editor

Online Store → Themes → VARAHI — Customize. Start with Quickstart.
3

Publish when ready

Click Publish. Your live storefront switches over immediately.

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With the Shopify CLI

1

Install the CLI

2

Log in

3

Clone or push the theme

4

Run a local dev server

The server prints a local URL and a preview URL. Your local edits hot-reload; the preview URL is what you use for the theme editor.
5

Validate before you push

VARAHI ships with zero theme-check errors and a single informational warning. If your copy reports errors, you have introduced them.
Always work on a duplicate theme when editing code. Online Store → Themes → ⋯ → Duplicate, then push to the copy. Your live theme stays untouched until you publish.

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From a ZIP file

1

Download the ZIP

Get the VARAHI theme ZIP from your purchase or from your developer.
2

Upload it

Online Store → Themes → Add theme — Upload theme, then choose the ZIP.
3

Preview, then publish

Open the uploaded theme, run through Quickstart, then publish.
Shopify only accepts ZIPs whose root folder contains layout/theme.liquid. If you are packaging the theme yourself, zip the contents of the theme folder, not the folder itself.

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Upgrading

Sections and settings you changed in the theme editor are stored in your store’s configuration, not in the theme files — so they survive an update. Changes you made to Liquid, CSS or JavaScript files do not survive, and your theme will be flagged as having custom code.
See Code reference. The short version: you can add your own snippets/, assets/ and sections/ files freely, and edit snippets/css-variables.liquid to add your own tokens. Avoid editing the sections themselves — that is what creates upgrade conflicts.
Create a new file assets/custom.css, add your rules there, and link it from layout/theme.liquid. Keep it in one place so re-applying it after an update takes seconds. See Going further.

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Requirements

Next: theme architecture

Understand what each file type does before you change anything.