Oxygen Forbids Development Stores - How do Shopify Partners Preview Hydrogen Development Stores with Clients?

[mw10013]

According to https://shopify.dev/docs/custom-storefronts/oxygen/getting-started, one of the requirements for Oxygen is that the Shopify store not be a development store.

Wondering about the following:

• How can Shopify Partners preview hydrogen development stores with their clients?
• How can Shopify Partners get hands on learning of Oxygen without having to pay for a Shopify store?
• What's the best way to reach out to a Shopify Partner advocate to ask for more partner support around Oxygen?

[matthewford]

It is, quite frankly, a ridiculous limitation.

[ryanleichty]

So building a development store with hydrogen is... discouraged?

[paul-phan]

I’d love to see Oxygen support Partner development stores, even with reasonable limits.

For partners building Hydrogen storefronts, dev stores are where evaluation, prototyping, client preview, and hands-on learning usually happen. If Oxygen requires a paid production store before teams can properly test deployment, it creates friction at exactly the point where developers are deciding whether Hydrogen is worth adopting.

I understand there may be cost or abuse concerns, but this could be constrained instead of fully blocked:

• allow Oxygen on verified Partner development stores
• apply usage caps for dev-store deployments
• limit custom domains or production traffic until the store moves to a paid plan
• support preview-only deployments for client review and partner learning

The short-term infrastructure cost of small dev-store previews seems low compared with the upside: more developers adopting Hydrogen, more agencies confidently pitching it, and more enterprise-quality storefronts eventually landing on Shopify.

Right now this limitation makes Hydrogen harder to recommend for partner-led builds than it needs to be. Opening Oxygen for development stores, even in a limited preview mode, would make Hydrogen adoption much smoother.

[graygilmore]

I have wonderful news! Oxygen is now available on Development stores. Please give it a go and let us know if you run into any issues!

[ryanleichty]

Awesome, super helpful! 🔥