Show notes
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Anne Thomas, co-founder of Design Packs. Anne shares her journey in the Shopify ecosystem, her recent foray into backend development with Supabase and Claude AI, and the launch of her new podcast, Cart to Cart.The conversation dives into the nuances of building with Shopify's flexible theme blocks, managing design systems, and the realities of using AI for coding and QA. Anne also discusses her community-building efforts with "Women Unified in Commerce".STAY CONNECTEDSubscribe to Liquid Weekly for more expert insights: https://liquidweekly.com/EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Anne's Background & Side Projects: From starting with Shopify themes in 2014 to building a horse-riding tracking app. Cart to Cart Podcast: Anne introduces her new podcast co-hosted with Trudy McNabb, Brenda Storer, and Diana Birsan. Women Unified in Commerce: Insights into the grassroots community meetups Anne and Trudy host in Toronto. Developer vs. Merchant Feedback: How the Design Packs team navigates and balances feedback. Theme Blocks & Design Systems: A deep dive into Shopify's flexible blocks, modern theme architecture, and CSS overrides. AI in the Dev Workflow: The realities of using AI tools like Claude and Cursor's Bugbot for writing code and PR reviews.FIND ANNE ONLINE & RESOURCES LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annethomas8/ Twitter(X): https://x.com/alfalfaanne Design Packs: https://design-packs.com/ Cart to Cart Podcast: https://cart2cartpodcast.com Women Unified in Commerce: LinkedIn Group TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction & Anne's Background 03:30 - Building with Supabase & Claude AI 08:40 - The "Cart to Cart" Podcast 30:30 - "Women Unified in Commerce" Meetups 37:50 - Balancing Merchant and Developer Feedback 43:30 - Navigating Shopify's Flexible Theme Blocks 50:15 - Design Systems & CSS Overrides in Themes 58:15 - AI Realities: Coding, QA, and Automated PR Reviews 01:09:40 - Dev Changelog Highlights 01:14:10 - Picks of the WeekDEV CHANGELOG ActionBar removed on mobile: TitleBar primary action now renders as an icon button - https://shopify.dev/changelog/primary-action-icon-replaces-actionbar-on-mobile New CSS variable for mobile safe area insets - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-css-variable-for-mobile-safe-area-insets Automated testing for Shopify UI extensions with @shopify/ui-extensions-tester - https://shopify.dev/changelog/automated-testing-for-shopify-ui-extensions-with-shopify-ui-extensions-tester New discount fields in the Storefront API's cart types - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-discount-fields-in-the-storefront-cart-graphql-api Shopify AI Toolkit: Connect your AI tools to the Shopify platform - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-ai-toolkit-connect-your-ai-tools-to-the-shopify-platform Shopify Scripts will be deprecated on June 30, 2026 - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-scripts-will-be-deprecated-on-june-30-2026 (non-dev) Checkout Blocks: Order value limits available on all plans - https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/checkout-blocks-order-value-limits-available-on-all-plansPICKS OF THE WEEK Karl: Simple Truth low-carb crisp crackers and reading the book Dune. Anne: Swapping the morning doomscroll for a daily crossword puzzle. Try https://www.dictionary.com/games/crossword to start. Taylor: Taking the kids to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie.