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Getting started with Guild
Documentation scope: Guild 0.1.x pre-release builds. The exact public release version will be confirmed in the changelog before Theme Store publication.
Guild is a Shopify theme for visually led product brands that sell through curated discovery, shoppable inspiration, and product confidence. The first public demo and listing direction targets the Shopify Home industry category, including decor, lifestyle, furniture, and related curated stores. This guide follows the setup order that usually saves time: source data first, then global style, navigation, templates, core content, and only then small refinements.
Use the supplied templates and section presets as starting points. A preset is an editable starting configuration, not a separate feature set. For the full distinction between theme, preset, template, section, and block, see Theme editor workflow.
For a shorter time-boxed path, use First hour setup. It helps a merchant get from a fresh install to a useful unpublished storefront preview before polishing individual pages. If you are unsure where a change belongs in the editor, use Theme editor workflow.
1. Add the theme
From Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes, add Guild, and open the theme editor. Keep the theme unpublished until the core pages, navigation, product templates, and checkout flow have been reviewed.
For Shopify's editor UI, preview controls, sidebar behavior, and general theme-editing workflow, see Shopify's theme editor overview. Guild docs cover the theme-specific sections, blocks, and settings after the theme is open.
2. Follow the editor decision order
Before editing individual settings, decide where the change belongs:
- Shopify Admin data for products, collections, navigation, policies, and store content.
- Theme settings for global style and reusable UI behavior.
- Templates for page-type structure.
- Sections for major page areas.
- Blocks for content inside sections.
- Apps, Custom HTML, Custom Liquid, or code only when built-in settings cannot solve the task.
See Theme editor workflow for the full decision guide.
3. Set global styles first
Open Theme settings and review these areas before building pages:
- Colors - create the main color schemes for the store.
- Typography - choose the body and heading fonts, global body/heading weights, strong-text weight, and related font presentation defaults.
- Font sizes - review desktop and mobile body sizes plus text scales.
- Spacing - set the default page rhythm.
- Radius, Shadows, Buttons, Inputs, and Tags - align common UI elements with the brand style.
- Brand assets - add the logo, favicon, and social media preview image.
- Social media - add public social media profile links.
- General utilities - review boxed content padding and overlay opacity values.
This gives new sections a consistent visual baseline, so a card grid, product block, or editorial image added later does not need to be restyled from scratch.
4. Configure navigation
Use the Header section for the main menu and customer account menu. Use the Footer section for secondary menu, store policies, contact links, and other support links. Create and organize the menu content in Shopify first; for platform-level menu setup, see Shopify's menus and links documentation.
Recommended setup:
- Keep top-level menu labels short.
- Include important shopping paths in the header.
- Include contact, shipping, returns, privacy policy, and terms links in the footer.
- Preview navigation on mobile before publishing.
5. Build the home page
Use the home page to introduce the brand, feature key products or collections, and direct customers to the main shopping paths. For a visual catalog, this usually means one strong opening section, a few clear product routes, and enough supporting content to build trust without turning the page into a brochure.
Useful sections and presets for home pages:
- Rich content for flexible layouts, cards, logos, testimonials, trust bars, and announcement bars.
- Media with content for image-led storytelling.
- Columns for side-by-side content.
- Countdown banner for launch or promotion messaging.
- Newsletter form for email signup.
- FAQ accordion or Tabbed content for supporting information.
Avoid leaving sample content visible on the published storefront.
6. Review core templates
Before publishing, review these templates with real store content:
- Product page
- Collection page
- Cart
- Search
- Blog and article pages
- Standard page
- 404 page
- Password page, if used before launch
Check desktop and mobile previews. Test at least one product with variants, one collection with several products, and one empty or no-results state. Those edge cases catch many launch-day surprises, especially in stores with uneven product imagery or incomplete catalog data.
7. Add store contact and signup forms
Use the theme's Contact form section for customer inquiries sent to the merchant's store. Use the Newsletter form section for customer email signups. Guild controls the form layout, fields, and rendering of Shopify-provided success or error states. Shopify sends native contact submissions to the store's sender email and applies its contact-form spam filtering. For platform details, see Shopify's contact page documentation.
The merchant's customer contact form is different from the Guild support contact form. Merchants should use Guild support only for theme-related questions, bug reports, and documented theme behavior.
8. Check mobile layouts
Mobile layouts can stack content, crop images differently, or use tighter spacing. Review:
- Header and footer menus
- Product media
- Collection grids
- Cards and logo lists
- Tabs and accordions
- Popups and drawers
- Forms
- Long headings and button labels
9. Run the first-hour checklist before publishing
If the setup still feels broad, use First hour setup as a final practical pass. It compresses the launch-prep order into brand baseline, navigation, home page, product and collection templates, cart, search, forms, policies, mobile, and publish decision checks.
10. Publish when ready
Publish the theme only after checking navigation, products, collections, cart, forms, mobile layouts, and support links. If code changes or third-party apps were added during setup, duplicate the theme and test the published flow again before launch.
11. Use the AI context file when asking an assistant for help
Guild includes a public Markdown context file for AI assistants:
Copy or upload the AI context file before asking ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or another assistant for help with Guild. It gives the assistant Guild's actual section names, template structure, common setup tasks, troubleshooting paths, and safe custom-code boundaries, which reduces generic advice that does not match the theme editor.
When using an AI assistant, ask it to prefer Shopify Admin and theme editor settings before suggesting custom code. Do not paste passwords, private keys, payment data, customer records, order exports, or unredacted screenshots into an AI chat.