Episode 047 - Theme Blocks, AI Tools, and Barcelona Adventures
Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify DevelopmentShow Notes
In this episode of Liquid Weekly, Karl and Taylor reconnect after Taylor's anniversary trip to Barcelona, diving into their latest Shopify development work including theme blocks, app development challenges, and the evolving AI tooling landscape. Episode Highlights: Taylor's experience transitioning from sections/blocks to theme blocks and the mental shift required Karl's EtherCycle app development progress and webhook filtering solutions Discussion of AI coding tools: Claude Code, Cursor, Kiro, and GPT-5 comparisons Taylor's Barcelona travel stories and balancing client work while on vacation The challenges merchants face adapting to theme blocks in themes like Horizon Karl's clever solution for filtering Shopify webhooks per shop to reduce infrastructure overhead Four-year anniversary milestone for the Liquid Weekly newsletter
Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction and Barcelona recap15:30 - Theme blocks learning curve and documentation28:45 - AI coding tools comparison and workflow35:20 - App development updates and webhook solutions45:10 - Travel work-life balance and client management52:30 - Shopify Dev Changelog57:00 - Picks of the Week Resources: Horizon theme (now open source) - https://github.com/Shopify/horizon Jan's Horizon customization video - https://www.shopifyacademy.com/video-learn-theme-customization-with-theme-blocks/2303629 Shopify customize webhook filters - https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/webhooks/customize/filters Raycast - https://raycast.com/?via=taylor Warp terminal - https://app.warp.dev/referral/2WY6RV Kiro AI coding tool - https://kiro.dev/ Claude Code - https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code Cursor CLI - https://cursor.com/en/cli
Dev Changelog: Request app reviews in admin with the new Reviews API - https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-app-reviews-in-admin-with-the-new-reviews-api New: Support for nested cart lines - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-support-for-nested-cart-lines [action required] _tracking_consent, _landing_page, _orig_referrer cookies will no longer be set - https://shopify.dev/changelog/trackingconsent-landingpage-origreferrer-cookies-will-no-longer-be-set [action required] _shopify_y and _shopify_s cookies will no longer be set - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopifyy-and-shopifys-cookies-will-no-longer-be-set [action required] Deprecation of the checkout_and_accounts_configurations/update webhook - https://shopify.dev/changelog/deprecation-of-checkoutandaccountsconfigurationsupdate-webhook
Picks of the Week:Karl: Taylor (awwwww)Taylor: Kindle Paperwhite - https://amzn.to/3UL74CB Sign Up for Liquid Weekly:Don't miss out on expert insights and tips—subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/
More from Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify Development
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.
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. Sponsor The Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/ Subscribe to Liquid Weekly Don't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/ Find Georgi Online Uxify: 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 Week Dev Changelog [action required] Variants now support multiple barcodes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/product-variant-barcode-is-being-replaced-by-barcodes Create 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-ended Delivery options in Shopify Functions input now expose their metafields: https://shopify.dev/changelog/delivery-options-in-shopify-functions-input-now-expose-their-metafields Prepare 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-configuration New 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-2026-10 Request a bundle size exception for existing UI extensions: https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-a-bundle-size-exception-for-existing-ui-extensions Picks of the Week Karl: 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-cookies Georgi: 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.
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Alexander Hupfer, founder of Fusion Metrics and a solo Shopify app developer.
Episode 073 – I Hid Swag and I'd Do It Again! - Recapping our DotDev Adventure