RepoJournal
Shopify

Shopify

Hydrogen, Polaris, and the CLI - the dev platform behind millions of stores

Keep up with Shopify in about 3 minutes a day: what actually shipped — the commits, pull requests, releases, and security advisories that matter.

One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click.

Pick a date

Topics: JavaScript Full archive →

The Wire · Showcase

SHOPIFY CLI KILLS THE ENV VAR GATE, EXTENSION-ONLY BECOMES THE DEFAULT

By RepoJournal · Filed · About Shopify

The HOSTED_APPS environment variable is gone, and the extension-only template is now the standard path for `shopify app init`, shipping without friction.

Shopify CLI just removed the experimental gate that was gating the hosted app template [1]. The extension-only template is now the default for the "none" option in `shopify app init` [2], which means developers no longer need to set environment variables to access this workflow. This simplifies onboarding and makes the extension-first pattern the primary path forward. In parallel, the team fixed a critical Windows + pnpm bug in the nightly build [3] where symlinks were dangling after initialization, forcing users to manually reinstall dependencies before shipping. That fix is now in the pipeline and blocks the 0.0.0-nightly release. The label cleanup [4] follows the same consolidation thread.

One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click.

Action items

References

  1. [1] Merge pull request #7197 from Shopify/remove-hosted-apps-env-var Shopify/cli
  2. [2] Remove HOSTED_APPS env var and make extension-only template the default Shopify/cli
  3. [3] [Fix] Move scaffolded project to its final directory before installing deps in `app init` ↗ Shopify/cli
  4. [4] Remove custom label for extension only apps Shopify/cli

Quick answers

What shipped in Shopify on May 27, 2026?
The HOSTED_APPS environment variable is gone, and the extension-only template is now the standard path for `shopify app init`, shipping without friction. In total, 7 commits and 3 pull requests landed.
Who contributed to Shopify on May 27, 2026?
1 developer shipped this update, including craigmichaelmartin.
What were the notable Shopify updates?
Merge pull request #7197 from Shopify/remove-hosted-apps-env-var, Remove HOSTED_APPS env var and make extension-only template the default, and [Fix] Move scaffolded project to its final directory before installing deps in `app init`.

More from Shopify

Daily updates, in your inbox

Follow Shopify

Keep up with Shopify in about 3 minutes a day: what actually shipped — the commits, pull requests, releases, and security advisories that matter.

or

One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click. Read a past issue →

Elsewhere on the wire

Want every project, not just this one?