Unable to use same development environment for multiple developers in custom app development

[pa1997]

I have a small clarification regarding Shopify app development.Currently, we are developing a custom Shopify app with two developers. We are using the same partner account and the same app credentials for our local development environments. Our development framework is Remix, and we're utilizing GitHub for version control.

The issue we're facing is that when one developer runs their local server (npm run dev), it updates their .toml file and the App URL and Allowed Redirection URL(s) in the partner account's app setup. Consequently, the provided link allows the other developer to access the app.

However, if the server is stopped, the link becomes inactive.My question is: How can multiple developers develop the same Shopify app using an identical local environment while sharing the same partner account?Appreciate any guidance!

[Adrian1234]

If you are using shopify CLI 3 and above you can use the app config link command

https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/managing-app-configuration-files

[aubreytayloracn]

In my experience, more than one dev cannot push changes to the same app in the Partner Dashboard. 

Resources:

• https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/commands
• https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/tools/cli/managing-app-configuration-files

Setup:

Here's how I've been setting it up lately for a multi-dev team:

• Create an app and development store pair per developer
• Ignore shopify.app.toml in .gitignore 
  • If you need to store app-specific configs, use the shopify.app.${config-name}.toml pattern
• Developers agree to work on one app / store combination at a time
• To link to a specific app / store use the shopify app config link command and:
  • Select the desired existing app
  • You may also need to manually update the [access scopes] in the resulting shopify.app.toml (I've seen some bugs here)
• Then run shopify app env pull command to pull app info into .env
• Then run shopify app dev command
  • Select the aligned development store (i.e., App Dev 1 → Store Dev 1)

I suppose you could install different apps on the same dev storefront, but this might become hard to manage. I would only do this if the burden to set up a testable dev store was very high.