Storefront and publishing

Use this section to move a storefront from an in-app preview to a verified live store. Each page covers one task and explains what every important control does.

Runner storefront preview and controls

What this covers

Choose the guide that matches your current storefront task, without confusing an editable preview with a live, purchasable store.

Understand the four storefront states

State	What it means	What it does not prove
Preview	Runner is showing a working copy inside your project. You can review pages and layouts.	The store is not necessarily public.
Publish	Runner checks and sends the current version to a public store URL for the first time.	Products, stock, shipping, payments, and checkout are not automatically verified.
Publish Changes	A live store already exists and Runner can send newer changes to it.	Unsaved or unfinished changes are not live yet.
Republish	Runner can retry after a failed publication or a completed publication that did not return a usable URL.	It is not the normal label for publishing new changes to a healthy live store.

Choose a task

What you want to do	Guide	Result
Review the current storefront	Preview your store	Check pages, routes, refresh behavior, and responsive layouts.
Make visual changes	Use Design Mode	Select an element and open the editing controls.
Change copy, spacing, type, or images	Edit content, pages, and media	Update one visible page and save the result.
Inspect or change a storefront file	Inspect and edit storefront code	Open the conditional code editor, save a focused file change, and review its Git state.
Compare or recover an earlier state	Use version history	Preview a version or restore it as a new current version.
Check whether the store is ready	Prepare to publish	Resolve or explicitly acknowledge the checks shown by Runner.
Put changes online	Publish and republish	Start the correct publication flow for the current state.
Prove the customer journey works	Verify the live store and checkout	Confirm the public catalog, cart, and checkout separately.
Use your own web address	Connect a custom domain	Add, buy, transfer, renew, or diagnose an eligible domain.
Recover from a blocked state	Troubleshoot preview and publishing	Match the message on screen to the safest next action.

Recommended order for a first launch

Review the latest version in Preview.
Make and save any visual edits in Design Mode.
Check the publication prerequisites.
Select Publish and follow the confirmation flow.
Open the public URL and verify the catalog and checkout.
Add a custom domain only after the first successful publication.

Availability and safety

Design Mode is conditional. It is intended for a ready latest version on a desktop layout and may be unavailable while Runner is working.
Open code editor is conditional. Saving, committing, pushing, publishing, and verifying the live store are separate results.
Publishing can be gated by plan or store state. Follow the message shown in your workspace rather than assuming every account has the same access.
A publish confirmation can let you acknowledge incomplete setup. That choice can put a browseable storefront online while checkout remains paused or incomplete.