Upstorr Design Control
Three modes. One storefront.
Upstorr Design Control is the system that gives each person the amount of design freedom they need without forcing everyone to understand an entire theme codebase.
It has three ways of working:
- Founder Mode — visual controls, with no code.
- Agency Mode — one understandable Liquid section at a time.
- Developer Mode — the complete theme folder through the Upstorr CLI.
These are not three buttons, plans or permission levels. They describe how deeply a person can edit a storefront. They do not mean that simultaneous changes from different people are automatically merged.
Founder Mode
Founder Mode is the normal visual theme editor.
- The left panel shows the page's sections and blocks.
- The middle shows the storefront preview.
- The right panel shows controls such as text fields, colour choices, dropdowns and sliders.
The founder can arrange the page and change the choices provided by the theme without seeing code. This is the smallest and easiest mode, but it is limited to the controls the theme author included.
Agency Mode
Agency Mode adds the section code editor.
After selecting a section, an agency can open Edit code and work with that section's Liquid, HTML, CSS, controls and section-local block definitions. It does not expose a separate code editor for every inner block or the rest of the theme folder.
An agency can also create a custom Liquid section. This is useful when the right-panel controls cannot produce the required design, but a complete custom theme would be unnecessary.
Because the code is limited to one visible section, it is easier for a person or an AI assistant to understand. For example, an agency can provide one hero section to an AI assistant, ask it to change the image shape, review the result and apply only that section's code.
Agency Mode does not allow arbitrary theme JavaScript, complete page-layout replacement or changes to the platform's private commerce systems.
Developer Mode
Developer Mode uses the Upstorr CLI and the complete authored theme/ folder.
A developer can work with layouts, templates, sections, reusable Liquid blocks, global styles, images and optional browser JavaScript. They can install normal browser libraries for advanced animation, page transitions or 3D presentation.
The theme still uses the public @upstorr/theme-sdk/v1 contract for store data and commerce actions. Full design freedom does not mean access to private APIs, authentication, GST calculations, inventory truth or payment systems.
Run upstorr theme dev <theme> to work locally in Workbench. Run upstorr theme upload-version <theme> to send an unpublished version for review. Uploading does not publish the live storefront.
What makes the middle mode different
Visual editors are easy but can only expose prepared choices. Complete code editors are powerful but present the whole theme file directory. Upstorr Design Control deliberately adds Agency Mode between them: code access that is powerful but limited to the selected section.
Shopify's documented code editor displays the theme's file directory and lets a user open and edit theme files. Shopify also supports visual sections and blocks. Upstorr's difference is the section-only code layer between visual settings and complete theme development. See Shopify's description of its theme code editor.
One simple example
Imagine a jewellery store changing its home-page hero:
- In Founder Mode, the owner changes its heading, image, colours and spacing with controls.
- In Agency Mode, a designer changes that hero's Liquid and CSS to create a special curved image treatment.
- In Developer Mode, a developer adds a 3D product scene, custom page transitions and theme-wide JavaScript.
All three work on the storefront's appearance. Upstorr continues to own the protected store data and commerce rules underneath it.
Choose the smallest mode that solves the job
Start with Founder Mode. Move to Agency Mode when the prepared controls are not enough. Use Developer Mode when the design needs changes across files, custom JavaScript or a completely original theme.
This keeps simple work simple without placing a ceiling on ambitious storefronts.