Clarification Request on Hydrogen and PARTNER Plan

Retired Boards Appdev Custom Storefronts

Topic summary

A Shopify Partner encountered access issues when trying to set up a Hydrogen headless demo store on a development store. Initially, support incorrectly advised upgrading to a Basic plan, which contradicted the expectation that Partner profiles should have access.

Resolution Found:

  • Instead of using the Hydrogen channel directly, install the “Headless” application from the Shopify admin dashboard
  • The Hydrogen app is only necessary if deploying with Oxygen
  • From the Headless app, copy the required API credentials into the project’s .env file:
    • SESSION_SECRET
    • PUBLIC_STOREFRONT_API_TOKEN
    • PRIVATE_STOREFRONT_API_TOKEN
    • PUBLIC_STORE_DOMAIN
    • PUBLIC_CHECKOUT_DOMAIN
  • Run npm run dev in the terminal to start the local development server

This workaround successfully bypassed the “Access denied for hydrogenStorefronts field” error and allowed the Partner to retrieve all necessary data without requiring a paid plan upgrade.

Summarized with AI on November 6. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Good morning,

I would like to know if Shopify PARTNER profiles are entitled to install and use Hydrogen for the development of a headless demo store for a client. I have already contacted support, and they informed me that I need to activate a Shopify BASIC plan… but this doesn’t make sense to me. Why wouldn’t a Partner profile be allowed to use Hydrogen?

Thank you very much for your support.

1 Like
2

Hi Ellie,

You don’t need a paid plan to set up a store built with Hydrogen. You can link a Hydrogen instance to a dev store in step 3 here of the getting started process.

3

Hi Liam,

Thank you very much for your support.

I just tried what you suggested and it seemed fine until an error came up: “Access denied for hydrogenStorefronts field. Required access: Request must be initiated from the Shopify CLI and user must have full access to apps or access to the Hydrogen channel.”

It seems like I need to log in into the Hydrogen channel first, but I’m not sure how?

I went into the shop dashboard and “downloaded” Hydrogen as sale channel but then again Shopify claims I need to upgrade to the Basic plan in order to use it. I’m confused, there must be something I’m missing!

Thank you for your help!

2 Likes
4

Hello, Ellie_maffio!
Do you have any updates here?
I faced same issue.

5

Hi Menkuichan!
Yes, I do have an update! :slightly_smiling_face:

I finally managed to run the Hydrogen store locally simply by installing on my Shopify admin dashboard the application called “Headless”.
(I found out that in fact I don’t really need the Hydrogen app if I don’t want to deploy my project with Oxygen).

Then, from the “Headless” application, I copied the variables

SESSION_SECRET=“foobar”
PUBLIC_STOREFRONT_API_TOKEN=“xxxxxxxxxx”
PRIVATE_STOREFRONT_API_TOKEN=“xxxxxxxxxx”
PUBLIC_STORE_DOMAIN=“xxxxxxxxxx”
PUBLIC_CHECKOUT_DOMAIN=“xxxxxxxxxxx”

Into my .env file and typed “npm run dev” on my terminal.
The project started and I was able to retrieve all the data I need.

Hope this helps!
Have a great day :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like