when i run shopify theme pull it does not show my development theme

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Core Issue:
Developers cannot pull changes from their development theme using shopify theme pull because the development theme doesn’t appear in the list of available themes to select from.

Problem Details:

  • After running shopify theme dev and making customizations in the Theme Editor, users expect to pull those changes back to their local environment
  • The shopify theme pull command shows a list of store themes, but the active development theme is missing
  • One user reports seeing old/stale dev themes instead of the current one

Solution Found:
Add the -d flag to the pull command: shopify theme pull -d

This flag specifically targets the development theme. Documentation reference provided: https://shopify.dev/docs/themes/tools/cli/commands#pull

Additional Issue:
One user encountered a separate connection error when running shopify theme list, showing “Unknown error connecting to your store” with an “aborted request” message. This appears to be an unrelated network/authentication problem.

Summarized with AI on October 30. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

I’ve initialized them using theme init in my vs code. Now I run the Shopify theme dev command and open the link to Customize this theme in the Theme Editor. I want to pull the changes I’ve made in my theme editor. but when I run the Shopify theme pull command it shows me a list of themes in my store and I have to choose one of them to pull. but I don’t want that I want to pull changes I’ve made in my development theme but it is not on the list.

2 Likes
2

For me, the issue is I see some old stale dev theme but not my current one. So I can’t make customizations and theme pull them because my changes apparently are saving to a dev theme that doesn’t exist and/or isn’t able to pull from.

3

I’m also having the same issue. Shopify theme dev successfully serves a new instance of the dev theme, but it does not show up in the list of themes to pull.

4

@bilal003 & @jamesauble - Figured it out!

You need to add the -d flag at the end of the command: shopify theme pull -d

See docs about pull flags: https://shopify.dev/docs/themes/tools/cli/commands#pull

1 Like
5

E:\homebaa\impactful-backdrop-theme>shopify theme list
╭─ error ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ │
│ Unknown error connecting to your store 4e8e99-77.myshopify.com: The user aborted a request. │
│ │
│ To investigate the issue, examine this stack trace: │
│ at fetchApiVersions │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:167669) │
│ at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95) │
│ at async supportedApiVersions │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:167659) │
│ at async fetchLatestSupportedApiVersion │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:167655) │
│ at async adminRequestDoc │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:167636) │
│ at async fetchThemes │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:167728) │
│ at async fetchStoreThemes │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:169636) │
│ at async list │
│ (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:172687) │
│ at command (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:172715) │
│ at run (Users/1/.nvmd/versions/18.20.2/node_modules/@shopify/cli/dist/index.js:166441)