Learn to Build a Shopify AI Agents + Skill App in 5 Minutes

I am Lvsao. I share hands-on Shopify independent-site practice, helping solo founders reduce anxiety. I also share AI ecommerce practice that actually improves business capability and efficiency. Across the internet, I have 60k+ followers, 8,000+ community members, and 300+ free practical tutorials.

This is the second article in the AI Agent Skill for Shopify operations series. This series requires some hands-on AI Coding Agent basics, so total beginners should be careful. If you have not read it yet, start with Drop the Plugins and N8N: Use AI Agents + Skill to Run Shopify.

Step 1: Create a Partner Account

Open partners.shopify.com.

This account and your Shopify store account are two completely separate systems.

So register however you want. It can use the same account as your Shopify store, or a different one. Creating the account, building an app for yourself, and opening access later do not require payment. I will not repeat the registration flow here.

Step 2: Create a Custom App

Enter the dev dashboard. You can also go directly to https://dev.shopify.com/dashboard.

• Click create app and give it any name.
• Then on the create version screen, do not change anything. Ignore everything and click release directly.

Step 3: Install the App to Your Store

On the app home page, click distribution, then choose custom distribution. This means: I am developing this app for one store only.

Then follow the prompt and find your store's initial domain. The format is similar to:

abcd.mydomain.com

Click generate link.

Do not worry. There is guardrail logic. Only when the domain format is correct will it move to the next step and generate the app installation link for you.

Then copy the install link, go back to the store home page, paste the link, and Shopify will prompt you to install it.

Our "app" is finally installed into our Shopify store.

Step 4: Find Your App Permission Keys

Next, the flow is similar to the previous tutorial: we need to get the app's API keys.

Go into this app's settings and you will find the two keys.

At this point, write down the following:

• Store domain
• App Client ID
• App Secret

Step 5: Install a Skill and Start Doing Real Work

For experienced users, you would continue by installing Shopify CLI, OAuth, and configuring scopes.

But for the skills in Selofy Skill Hub, I have polished the onboarding flow to be as beginner-friendly as possible. You only need to copy the prompt to install the skill, then start describing the business task directly. AI will help install the necessary dependencies and open the corresponding scope permissions.

For example, let's try this skill: Optimize Shopify Alt Text.

This skill uses a multimodal large language model with image understanding to optimize site-wide alt text.

I have optimized the whole process for newcomers. Even if you do not understand CLI commands or code instructions, AI will follow the skill to complete configuration and authorization for you. You only need to keep answering in natural language.

If you think this is still too much trouble, you can also use the Shopify app I made. It has the same function, but the plugin is more user-friendly because it runs directly inside your Shopify store, and it can also be fully automated.

FAQ

Does developing a Shopify app for myself cost money? Is it allowed?

No extra fee is needed. As long as you do not publish the app as a public app to the app store, Shopify does not charge you for this. Shopify officially supports this approach:

Create apps using the Shopify dev dashboard

In the official docs, Shopify specifically mentions this method as a best practice for third-party integration, automation, and API access.

Why is creating an app through the dev dashboard better than a legacy custom app?

An app created through the partner dev system can support Shopify CLI. That makes it much more AI-Agent-friendly. Scope configuration and many Shopify store actions can be executed by AI in a lighter and more efficient way.

Do I have to use your Selofy Shopify skill?

Of course not.

As long as you set up the basic configuration, which means opening API permissions, in theory you can unlock AI to help you do almost anything. A skill is just my way of turning common workflows into a process and a method, so newcomers can move faster.

Can this "app" be used for multiple stores? Can I create multiple apps?

No. Remember the custom distribution link you selected? That option means one app is bound to one store only.

For multi-store operations, you can create multiple apps, install them separately, and configure multiple environments.