Staff account getting permission denied

Technical Q&A

Topic summary

A partner account owner created a staff account with full app development permissions, but the staff member encounters a “No app with client ID found” error when running shopify app dev despite successfully logging into the CLI.

Likely cause: The CLI is tied to the app owner’s Partner account rather than the staff account, even with proper permissions granted.

Suggested troubleshooting steps:

  • Verify the staff account is added to the same Partner organization (Settings → Users → Staff accounts)
  • Grant explicit app access in Partner Dashboard (Apps → [Your App] → Permissions)
  • Re-authenticate the CLI using shopify logout and shopify login
  • Confirm the client_id in shopify.app.toml matches the Partner Dashboard app

If unresolved: The organization owner should re-invite the staff account, followed by a fresh CLI login attempt.

The discussion remains open with no confirmation whether these solutions resolved the issue.

Summarized with AI on October 25. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I have a partner account and have been following the tutorial for setting up an app. I want to have a second person able to work on the app so I created a staff account for them and granted them full access including app development. They’ve pulled the code down and when they run “shopify app dev” and login they get the following error:

No app with client ID … found

Next steps: check that your account has permission to develop apps for this organization or contact the owner of the organization to grant you permission…

As I said before this account already has permission to develop apps and they successfully logged in via the CLI so why are they getting this error message and how do I fix it?

1 Like
2

@AndyRichdale Hi there,

This error usually happens because the CLI is tied to the app owner’s Partner account rather than the staff account. Even though your staff user has “app development” permissions in the Partner Dashboard, they may not automatically have access to that specific app project in the CLI.

A couple of things you can try:

  1. Make sure they’re added to the same Partner organization – staff accounts need to be part of the same org where the app lives. Double-check under Settings → Users → Staff accounts in your Partner Dashboard.

  2. Grant explicit app access – inside your Partner Dashboard, go to Apps → [Your App] → Permissions and confirm the staff account is added with the right role.

  3. Re-authenticate the CLI – sometimes the CLI caches the wrong token. Ask them to run:

    shopify logout
shopify login

    and then log back in to your Partner account (the one tied to the app’s org).

  4. Check the app project’s shopify.app.toml file – confirm the client_id matches the app in your Partner Dashboard. If the staff member cloned the repo before having permissions, the CLI may not be able to link it correctly.

If they still see the error after these steps, the best route is to have the organization owner re-invite the staff account, then try again with a fresh login in the CLI.