Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify Development

Taylor is back from Shop Quest in Bangalore and gives Karl the full debrief: the pre-travel prep nobody warns you about, what a partner-run Shopify conference looks like when Shopify itself sponsors it, and why the talks focused on practical, no-hype AI from teams supporting hundreds of thousands of merchants.SPONSORThis episode is sponsored by Learn Shopify Dev: https://learnshopify.devLearn Shopify development by doing the work: you join a fictional company as its new developer, get real tasks, write real Liquid in your browser and get code-review-style checks, moving from your first Liquid tag to production themes. The first lessons are free, no sign-up required.SUBSCRIBE TO LIQUID WEEKLYDon't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/TIMESTAMPS(Timestamps generated by AI show notes)00:00 Cold open: the overly helpful hotel tour00:21 Welcome back; Taylor's Shop Quest debrief begins01:27 Pre-travel health screening, shots, and visa forms05:00 Using ChatGPT as a running travel log06:06 Airport lounge access and its three-hour catch08:20 20 hours of flying, economy vs. premium economy12:54 Sponsor: Learn Shopify Dev14:01 Lessons learned: seats, Wi-Fi, and working mid-flight18:18 Managing client expectations while traveling abroad19:20 Landing in Bangalore: traffic, food, and "spicy"24:53 Pre-conference events and an Uber payment mishap31:42 Shop Quest day: night-market tokens and Shopify's sponsorship33:30 The talks: practical AI, no thinly veiled pitches37:00 Hallway track and "Where's Karl?"42:01 Lepakshi temple trip and Indian filter coffee44:48 Too early for the Bangalore airport51:05 Dev Changelog54:07 Picks of the weekDEV CHANGELOG• Checkout MCP and Cart MCP now support UCP buyer consenthttps://shopify.dev/changelog/checkout-mcp-and-cart-mcp-now-support-ucp-buyer-consentStarting with UCP 2026-08-25, buyers can make privacy and marketing choices (like SMS and email opt-in) through their shopping agent, helping preserve marketing signals in agentic commerce.• Hydrogen 2026-10 is now availablehttps://shopify.dev/changelog/hydrogen-2026-10-is-now-availableHydrogen is now a framework-agnostic JavaScript library with starters for React Router and Next.js, built with coding agents in mind; a migration skill helps existing React Router–based Hydrogen projects upgrade.• Cart updates with no changes no longer trigger carts/update webhookshttps://shopify.dev/changelog/unchanged-carts-no-longer-trigger-carts-update-webhooksCart update calls that don't actually change the cart no longer fire a webhook, cutting noise for apps listening to cart events.PICKS OF THE WEEKKarl: Library infrared camera loansMany public libraries lend thermal cameras for finding missing insulation, drafts, and leaks around the house.Taylor: AI agent botsSelf-hosted AI assistant bots Taylor is using for personal and admin tasks, with some teams running them as per-client project managers.

Nick Selman, who leads growth at Shoplift, joins Karl and Taylor to talk about conversion rate optimization built specifically for Shopify.Shoplift is the first Shopify Plus certified CRO platform, and Nick gets into why a Shopify-native tool beats general-purpose testing (no flicker, tests at the Liquid level, served through Shopify), how to think about Rollouts as a floor rather than a threat, why most CRO is stuck in hundred-year-old orthodoxy, and what non-BFCM brands should actually do during the busiest season. Plus the "technical-ish" era of marketing, the biggest mistakes brands and agencies make with testing, the Dev Changelog, and Picks of the Week.SponsorThe Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/Subscribe to Liquid WeeklyDon't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/Find Nick OnlineShoplift: shoplift.aiLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nickselmanTwitter/X: x.com/nickselmanEmail [email protected] for a free conversion rate auditTimestamps(00:00) Open(00:35) Intros and Taylor's trip(02:07) Meet Nick Selman of Shoplift(04:55) Nick's origin story: from a coffee dropshipping startup to Shoplift(09:05) The "technical-ish" era for marketers and founders(15:59) Why a Shopify-native CRO tool beats general-purpose testing(20:30) Rollouts as the floor, not a threat to the app ecosystem(30:10) Going all in on Shopify and rethinking century-old CRO(34:10) What non-BFCM brands should do during BFCM(37:17) Who actually benefits from A/B testing, and the "do no harm" test(44:02) Biggest mistakes brands and agencies make with CRO(49:13) Dev Changelog(52:13) Picks of the WeekDev ChangelogBuild with confidence: Shopify AI Toolkit's security check: https://shopify.dev/changelog/blog/build-more-secure-apps-with-shopify-s-ai-toolkit-security-checkCheckout footer visibility now applies to merchant-configurable content: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/checkout-footer-visibility-now-applies-to-merchant-configurable-contentAdd shopping and Shop Pay checkout to any agent with Shop MCP: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/add-shopping-and-shop-pay-checkout-to-any-agent-with-shop-mcp[deprecation] Global Catalog REST API stops serving traffic on November 2, 2026: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/global-catalog-rest-api-stops-serving-traffic-on-november-2-2026[action required] New owner_type field for metafield declarations in Checkout and Customer Account UI extensions, required in 2027-01: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/metafield-owner-types-required-for-checkout-and-customer-account-ui-extensions[breaking change][action required] Cart mutations reject unconfirmed writes in POS UI extensions 2026-10: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/cart-mutations-reject-unconfirmed-writes-in-pos-ui-extensions-2026-10[breaking change][action required] POS UI extensions now return percentage values for percentage discounts: https://shopify.dev/changelog/posts/pos-ui-extensions-now-return-percentage-values-for-percentage-discountsPicks of the WeekKarl: The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. The first book chronologically in the Leatherstocking Tales (the Last of the Mohicans series), feeding his current frontier-life kick.Nick: Hestan NanoBond pans. Titanium-coated stainless steel, durable, dishwasher safe, and worth waiting for a sale on.Taylor: A Kindle, plus the Libby app for free library books. His travel lifesaver on 20-plus-hour flights, and currently loaded with the Game of Thrones series.

Taylor is in India for Shop Quest, so Karl flies solo with Charles Swayne, owner and app developer at JadePuma Apps and the person behind Datify. Charles is 21, learned Python in sixth grade, and now runs a multi-agent development workflow that researches, plans, audits the plan, executes, and tests itself before he ever looks at the code.We get into what that workflow actually looks like, which models he reaches for at each step and why, how he runs his own evals, and whether any of us should still be reading the PR. Plus Datify, structuring product data for agentic commerce, and what it was like when Mantle shut down.▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬SPONSORPromo Party Pro is a free gift with purchase app Karl helped build with the team at Ethercycle. Set a spend threshold, show shoppers how close they are to earning a gift, and let the app handle the rest. Discount Functions under the hood, one app embed, no theme surgery, and campaigns auto-pause when the gift sells out.Agencies: one of your clients gets a full year free. Not a trial, a year. https://promoparty.app/agencyPromo Party Pro - https://promoparty.app/ On the Shopify App Store - https://apps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwp▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬SUBSCRIBE TO LIQUID WEEKLYDon't miss out on expert insights and tips, subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬FIND CHARLES ONLINELinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-swayne/ Datify on the Shopify App Store - https://apps.shopify.com/datify JadePuma Apps on the Shopify App Store - https://apps.shopify.com/partners/jadepuma-apps JadePuma - https://jadepuma.com/ BBQ on Ingraham, his neighborhood potluck - https://bbq-on-ingraham.onrender.com/▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬TIMESTAMPSTimestamps generated by AI show notes. These may shift slightly after final edit.00:00 – Cold open: the boot disk that broke Dad's computer00:35 – Taylor is in India, so Karl is on his own 01:17 – Meeting at the water cooler, which was really the Diet Coke 02:50 – Python in sixth grade and a choose your own adventure ham sandwich 03:37 – The internship with Scott Austin that turned into a career 06:29 – The Rutgers full stack certificate, before Claude existed 07:55 – How JadePuma Apps turns one client's problem into an app 08:47 – Admin extensions and printing jukebox strips from an order 09:45 – Tech stack, Heroku, Vercel, and the fear of picking the next Heroku 11:48 – When Mantle shut down 14:56 – Sponsor: Promo Party Pro 16:10 – What Datify does, and the merchant with 700,000 products 19:05 – Seven apps, two Built for Shopify, and figuring out pricing 20:59 – The agentic workflow: research, plan, audit, execute, test, review 22:00 – The plan reviewer skill, and why the plan matters more than the code 24:25 – Subagent phases and picking a model for each one 27:16 – Running your own evals: same prompt, two models, fifty times 28:30 – Screenshots, phone notifications, and automated test reports 29:57 – Hallucinations, scheming, and the Haiku that switched to Russian 33:41 – Do you read the PR? Every AI feature ships with a security bug36:23 – When the review loop never ends and you wonder if you should have done it yourself 41:08 – Missing the grunt work, and grieving it together 43:09 – From DOS 5 to agents, what we gained and what we lost 44:44 – The SimCity theory of programming with agents 47:00 – Dev Changelog 49:15 – Picks of the Week▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬PICKS OF THE WEEKKarl: When Life Gives You Pears by Jeannie Gaffigan - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1538751046 – Her account of having a brain tumor removed, her family, and her faith. Not Karl's usual read, and it stuck with him.Charles: Keyviz - https://keyviz.org/ – A widget that shows your last ten keystrokes, so when you fat-finger a shortcut you can see what you just did and undo it.

Georgi Petrov, CEO and co-founder of Uxify, joins Karl and Taylor to talk about the half of web performance nobody optimizes for: the shopper's device. After building SMS Bump (acquired by Yotpo), ConsentMo, and NitroPack (acquired by WP Engine), Georgi is now tackling device-specific friction, the laggy buttons, layout shifts, and interaction delays that vary wildly from one phone to the next. We get into how Uxify profiles a visitor's capability without touching your code, the specialized agents that fix problems on the fly, the ClickHouse-powered data layer behind it all, and how to think about performance heading into BFCM. Plus the Dev Changelog and Picks of the Week.SponsorThe Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/Subscribe to Liquid WeeklyDon't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/Find Georgi OnlineUxify: https://uxify.com/integrations/shopify/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgipetrov/Timestamps(00:00) Open(00:29) Intros(02:11) Meet Georgi Petrov of Uxify(02:54) Origin story: hardware hacking to his first software(06:03) Finding Shopify: SMS Bump, ConsentMo, and NitroPack(12:23) Making fast decisions and failing cheaply(15:32) Why Uxify: performance is half website, half device(20:11) How it works: profiling devices and adapting on the fly(26:17) Sitting alongside your theme without touching your code(28:26) Real user monitoring and specialized agents(37:47) The tech stack: ClickHouse and heavy browser testing(41:57) Shopify cart variations and a clever checkout fallback(46:24) Prepping for BFCM and who Uxify is for(51:14) Dev Changelog(58:22) Picks of the WeekDev Changelog[action required] Variants now support multiple barcodes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/product-variant-barcode-is-being-replaced-by-barcodesCreate and delete dev stores in Shopify CLI: https://shopify.dev/changelog/create-and-delete-dev-stores-in-shopify-cli[action required] Discounts Allocator Function API developer preview has ended: https://shopify.dev/changelog/discounts-allocator-function-api-developer-preview-has-endedDelivery options in Shopify Functions input now expose their metafields: https://shopify.dev/changelog/delivery-options-in-shopify-functions-input-now-expose-their-metafieldsPrepare your app for the Shopify admin's new look: https://shopify.dev/changelog/prepare-your-app-for-the-shopify-admins-new-look[action required] Updates to Events payloads and subscription configuration: https://shopify.dev/changelog/updates-to-events-payloads-and-subscription-configurationNew Pricing audit trail for contextual product variant prices: https://shopify.dev/changelog/pricing-audit-trail-for-contextual-product-variant-prices[breaking api change] [action required] Removed session.currentSession.staffMemberId from POS UI Extensions (2026-10): https://shopify.dev/changelog/removed-session-currentsession-staffmemberid-from-pos-ui-extensions-2026-10Request a bundle size exception for existing UI extensions: https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-a-bundle-size-exception-for-existing-ui-extensionsPicks of the WeekKarl: Keto Oreo-style sandwich cookies (about 50 calories each), part of his ongoing tour through packaged keto snacks: https://www.choczero.com/products/keto-sandwich-cookiesGeorgi: Calisthenics between AI prompts. Knocking out push-ups and squats while waiting on an agent, which he says burns the time well and sharpens his focus when he comes back.Taylor: Ted Lasso, season 4 on Apple TV+. Still, in his words, one of the most wholesome shows around: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/

Prakhar Shrivastava of FoxSell joins Karl and Taylor to talk about Shop Quest, the Shopify community event he and his team run in Bengaluru, and to prep Taylor for his first trip to India.Along the way Prakhar breaks down India's Shopify ecosystem, from the app companies pulling serious revenue to the agencies quietly white-labeling builds for Platinum partners in the US and Europe, and makes the case for why the Shopify partner community needs its own events at all.SPONSORPromo Party Pro is a free gift with purchase app Karl helped build with the team at Ethercycle. Out of the box it gives you campaigns built to increase AOV and conversion: set a spend threshold, show shoppers how close they are to earning a gift, and let the app handle the rest. Discount Functions under the hood, one app embed, no theme surgery, and campaigns auto-pause when the gift sells out.Agency offer: one of your clients gets a full year free. Not a trial, a year.Promo Party ProOn the Shopify App StoreSUBSCRIBE TO LIQUID WEEKLYDon't miss out on expert insights and tips, subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this.FIND PRAKHAR ONLINELinkedInXFoxSellFoxSell Bundles Plus on the Shopify App StoreBook time with PrakharShop QuestTIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Cold open: apologizing in advance for name pronunciation 00:25 – Karl sends Taylor on a quest, Prakhar joins 06:51 – What FoxSell does and why complex bundles 08:17 – The origin of Shop Quest: a 30 person dinner that kept growing 10:24 – From 150 attendees to 400, and why people started flying in 19:24 – Visas, arrival, and getting picked up at the airport 21:15 – Don't eat from the street, don't drink the tap water 22:33 – There is no tipping culture in India 25:26 – Haggling in street markets, and how badly you'll get quoted 27:14 – India's Shopify ecosystem: merchants, apps, and agencies 29:13 – The white-label agency work nobody talks about 31:51 – Why the Shopify partner community is a lonely place to be 33:15 – Shop Quest format: fewer talks, more networking, more business content 37:13 – Talks recorded in 4K, plus an MCP server for the event 41:15 – Name tags, phonetic spellings, and why Adi shortened his name 46:43 – Taylor's travel prep: lounges, overnight flights, and vaccinations 48:27 – Print your visa confirmation before you fly 50:20 – Swym's office is across the street from the venue 53:06 – South Indian food, and why Prakhar and Adi speak English to each other 56:07 – Dev Changelog 1:00:46 – Picks of the WeekDEV CHANGELOGGitHub commits now name the last theme editor. Official PHP and Python packages for building appsFour new Events topics⚠️ As of October 1, theme commands against password protected storefronts need CLI 3.84 or later.More resilient refreshes for expiring offline access tokensThe Polaris CDN is adopting semantic versioningPICKS OF THE WEEKKarl: A Diet Coke coaster, courtesy of his sister Heather. "I'd like a Diet Coke please." "Is Diet Pepsi okay?" "Is monopoly money okay?"Karl: Umland's Crunchy Cheese – A Carlock, Illinois company that vacuum-dries cheese below its melting point to make it light, airy, and crunchy. Karl has not tried it yet but picked it anyway.Prakhar: DJI Osmo Pocket 3 – What he uses to record every event he attends, including Shop Quest.Taylor: Omarchy – DHH's opinionated Arch and Hyprland Linux distro. Taylor put it on a 2012 MacBook and brought the thing back to life, battery included, and it handles the Shopify CLI and agents fine.BONUSSee all that Bengaluru has to offer at sda.guide.