Managing default JSON files in the same GIT theme across different stores

Retired Boards Appdev Custom Storefronts

Topic summary

A developer is managing a single Git-integrated theme across multiple Shopify Plus stores, each serving different locales/languages for the same brand. Translation files and locale-specific page templates (e.g., page.landingpage-uk.json, page.landingpage-it.json) work well in this setup.

Core Problem:
Default JSON template files like index.json and product.json cannot be locale-specific when edited via the theme customizer. Shopify only recognizes standard filenames (index.json), not locale variants (index-uk.json, index-de.json). When brand managers edit these files in one store, changes overwrite the shared Git repository, affecting all stores.

Attempted Solutions:

  • Store contextualization feature was considered, but Shopify Plus Support confirmed context-specific pages only display based on geolocation apps (visitor location), not store market.
  • Community suggestions include GitHub workflows with conditions, and tools like Shopkeeper, but the developer finds these workarounds complex and risky for managing just a few JSON file variants.

Current Status:
The issue remains unresolved. The developer seeks better native support from Shopify’s frontend team, viewing this as a basic requirement for multi-store, single-theme setups.

Summarized with AI on November 14. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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I’m struggling with the following scenario:

  • I have one theme, using GIT integration

  • I have multiple plus stores for the same brand, for each locale/language

  • I can translate all repo files using the normal locale/**.json and translation string logic

  • Brand managers can create content pages for each store using the theme customiser and sections, which in their turn create page.xxx.json files in the live theme, which in my turn i pull using the theme:pull feature so they are added to the repo

  • The pages will always be locale-unique, meaning we would have something like page.landingpage-uk.json, page.landingpage-it.json, … which means they can just sit safely next to each other in the templates folder

So far so good. But, here the problem comes in: what about the uniquely-named shared default files like index.json, product.json, … If these files are being edited using the theme customiser, they are overwritten with the language/locale from the store where it was just edited in. That means there would need to be a index-de.json, index-uk.json, index-it.json, .. which is of course not allowed nor possible as Shopify only expects index.json.

I thought about using the ‘context’ feature (described here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/store-contextualization) but after a talk with Shopify Plus Support, it appears these context specific versions of a page will only show based on a geolocation app (meaning, index.context.[markethandle].json would only be served if the visitor is located in France). So that’s not an option.

In short: how do i serve locale-specific shopify-unique JSON page templates like index.json across multiple stores using the same connected GIT theme?

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Hi MathijsDelva,

The native GitHub Integration is primarily built for managing safe theme deployments to a single store, although some devs have implemented workflows that allow for scenarios where themes are different, using conditions and GitHub workflows - as in this forum post and this blog post.

There are also some community built tools like Shopkeeper that may help with your setup.

Hope the above helps!

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Hi Liam, thank you for your reply. The forum & blog posts gave me some insights, but i feel that’s quite dangerous terrain and also a lot of configuration to just to safeguard a few different versions of JSON data. I would really like some better support and insights from within the Shopify Dev Front-end team on this issue, as i feel this is something quite basic to support out of the box. Thanks for your reply Liam!

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