How can I transfer a theme from Shopify to VS Code?

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

Problem: Downloading a Shopify theme to work locally in VS Code fails when running theme download, showing an error like “theme: can’t open either download or dow nload.text”. The goal is to pull a theme edited in the Shopify admin and then push it to GitHub.

Key guidance: Use Shopify Theme Kit commands instead of theme download.

  • theme get --list to list available themes in the store and choose one to download.
  • theme get --live to download the currently live theme.

Outcome: The reply points to the correct Theme Kit commands and official documentation; the original error is not further diagnosed, and follow-up confirmation is pending.

Summarized with AI on February 26. AI used: gpt-5.2.
1

Hi, I am trying to pull the theme from shopify to VS code. I’m using theme download but I get the error theme: can’t open either download or download.text. I’m not sure what the appropriate command is. I’ve been making edits directly in the shopify dashboard, and need to push it to git hub.

2

Hey

Assuming you have already set up the credentials to use Theme Kit, you can use the command:

theme get --list

this will display a list of all your themes on your terminal, you can then select which one you want to download to work on it locally.

You can also use

theme get --live

to download the live theme on your website.

Theme Kit Documentation

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks,

Andre

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