Shopify · Updated June 2026
Liquid is Shopify’s open-source templating language, used in all themes to render dynamic content with objects ({{ product.title }}), tags ({% if %}), and filters (| money). Understanding basic Liquid lets merchants customize themes without a developer.
Liquid is deliberately safe and sandboxed — it cannot call external services or run arbitrary code, which is why Shopify lets merchants edit theme files directly.
A Shopify theme is the template system controlling a store’s design and layout, built with Liquid, JSON templates, and sections. Themes determine not just looks but baseline performance and SEO structure — heading hierarchy, schema output, and page speed.
Metafields are custom data fields attached to Shopify resources — products, collections, pages, customers. They store structured information the standard fields don’t cover (ingredients, size charts, care instructions) and render in themes via dynamic sources.