First hour setup checklist

Documentation scope: Guild 0.1.x pre-release builds. The exact public release version will be confirmed in the changelog before Theme Store publication.

Use this checklist when Guild is newly installed or when you need to turn an unpublished copy into a useful storefront preview quickly. It is not a full launch checklist. The goal is to create a clean working baseline before polishing individual sections.

Before you start

Prepare these items in Shopify Admin first:

• A logo, favicon, and social media preview image.
• At least one real product with images, price, variants, and description.
• At least one real collection with several products.
• Header and footer menus.
• Store policies or placeholder policy pages that you will replace before launch.
• Brand images for the home page, product story, or collection story.

Keep the theme unpublished until the preview has been checked on desktop and mobile. If you are not sure where a change belongs, use Theme editor workflow before adding custom code or apps.

0-10 minutes - create the visual baseline

1. Open Online Store > Themes > Customize.
2. Open Theme settings.
3. Add brand assets: logo, favicon, and social media preview image.
4. Set the main color schemes.
5. Choose typography and review font sizes.
6. Review spacing, buttons, inputs, radius, shadows, and tags.

Do not fine-tune every section yet. The first pass should make new sections inherit a usable brand baseline.

10-20 minutes - configure navigation and footer paths

1. In Shopify Admin, confirm the main menu and footer menu exist.
2. In the theme editor, configure the Header section.
3. Add the main shopping paths to the header.
4. Configure the Footer section.
5. Add contact, shipping, returns, privacy policy, terms, and other support links to the footer.
6. Preview the header and footer on mobile.

Keep menu labels short. Long top-level labels usually create mobile and desktop navigation pressure.

20-35 minutes - make the home page useful

Start with the installed Home composition and replace its sample content in place before adding more sections. This keeps the first setup close to the tested preset and avoids duplicate heroes, repeated product routes, or unnecessary nested layouts.

1. Replace the opening section content, usually Hero slideshow or Media with content.
2. Connect the existing primary catalog route to a real collection, usually through Featured collection or Featured catalog.
3. Replace the existing trust or story content before adding another Rich content, Columns, FAQ accordion, or Tabbed content section.
4. Keep optional acquisition or promotional surfaces disabled unless the store is ready to use them, including newsletter capture, countdowns, automatic popups, and policy-dependent cart messaging.
5. Remove unused sample sections and visible sample content before publishing.

Add a new section only when the installed composition does not already have a suitable job for the content. A good first home page should answer: what the store sells, where customers should shop first, and why the store is trustworthy.

35-45 minutes - check product and collection templates

Use real catalog content, not only perfect sample products.

Check one product with:

• images;
• variants;
• a price;
• a description;
• add-to-cart enabled;
• any product details, care notes, shipping details, or size guidance the store needs.

Check one collection with:

• several products;
• product images with realistic crops;
• sorting;
• filters, if Shopify Search & Discovery is configured;
• pagination, Load more, or Infinite scroll, depending on the store's intended browsing flow.

If product or collection data is incomplete, fix Shopify Admin content before changing theme code.

45-55 minutes - check cart, search, forms, and policies

Review these paths before polishing visuals:

• Add a product to cart and review the cart page.
• Test quantity changes and checkout handoff.
• Run a search with results and one search with no results.
• Submit a test contact form if the store is ready to receive messages.
• Check that footer policy links point to real pages.
• Check that app embeds, custom HTML, and custom Liquid are disabled unless they are intentionally needed.

Guild controls theme layout and built-in theme behavior. Shopify controls checkout, native platform data, storefront search data, contact-form submission, and customer privacy settings.

55-60 minutes - mobile and publish decision

Before publishing, check:

• Home page first screen on mobile.
• Header menu and cart access.
• Product media and add-to-cart area.
• Collection grid and filter drawer.
• Cart page and checkout handoff.
• Contact and newsletter forms.
• Footer links.
• Any popup, app embed, Custom HTML, or Custom Liquid block.

Publish only when the main shopping path works with real products and real navigation. Keep polishing in an unpublished duplicate if the store still needs copy, images, product data, policies, or app configuration.

Do not start with custom code

Use Shopify Admin, theme settings, templates, section presets, and their content blocks first. Structural blocks and custom code can affect setup time, updates, accessibility, performance, layout behavior, and the support scope for issues caused by the modification.

Duplicate the theme before adding apps, custom code, or major layout changes.

When to use troubleshooting or support

Use Troubleshooting when a setting appears to do nothing, content is missing, spacing looks wrong, a popup does not appear, or a form needs a quick sanity check.

Use Contact support when the documentation does not resolve a setup question or when you suspect a Guild bug. For suspected bugs, test an unpublished, unmodified copy when practical and collect the store URL, Guild version, affected page, steps to reproduce, expected behavior, actual behavior, and redacted screenshots or a short screen recording. Inability to complete the duplicate-theme test does not block a support request.