Installing Pixel Wrangler

What the install actually does, the permissions it asks for, and how to confirm the customizer is live on your storefront.

The Quickstart gets you from install to a live product in five minutes. This page slows down on the install itself — the permissions Shopify asks you to approve, where the app lands in your admin, and how to be sure the Customise button is really on your storefront before you tell anyone.

Before you install

You need a Shopify store on a plan that allows app installs. That's every paid Shopify plan. Development stores work too, which is the sensible place to try Pixel Wrangler if you don't want a work-in-progress template near live traffic.

You do not need to touch theme code, add a second app, or hire anyone. The customizer wires itself into your storefront through Shopify's theme app extensions.

Step 1 — Install from the App Store

Open the Pixel Wrangler listing and click Add app, then Install. Shopify shows you the permission screen before anything happens.

📷 [screenshot: Shopify permission approval screen for Pixel Wrangler, showing the requested scopes]

Pixel Wrangler asks for the access it needs to do the job and nothing decorative:

  • Read products — to find the products you'll link templates to, and to read variants (size, colour, material) so the customizer respects the option the shopper picked.
  • Read and write orders — to write the design thumbnail, the print-ready file link, tags, and metafields onto each paid order. This is how your fulfilment process gets the artwork.
  • Read themes — to place the Customise button through the theme app extension without editing your theme.

Approve it and you land in the Pixel Wrangler admin with an empty template list. Nothing is live on your storefront yet — an installed app with no templates changes nothing a shopper can see.

Step 2 — Start your trial and pick a plan

On first open, Pixel Wrangler starts your 14-day free trial. You get the full builder, the customizer, AI tools, and print-ready rendering during the trial — no feature is held back to a paid tier for the trial period.

Pick a plan now or let the trial run and decide later; the app prompts you before the trial ends. Plan charges bill through Shopify and appear on your Shopify invoice. For what each tier includes, see Plans and what's included.

Wrangler AI bills separately. The AI tools are pay-per-use through Stripe, on their own invoice — not part of your Shopify subscription. A trial store that never runs an AI action never sees an AI charge. See AI usage and billing.

Step 3 — Confirm the theme extension is enabled

The Customise button ships as a theme app extension. On most themes it's live the moment you link a template — but it's worth a ten-second check, because a disabled extension is the single most common "the button isn't showing" cause.

In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes → Customize. Open a product page in the theme editor. In the left panel under App embeds (or as a block on the product template), confirm the Pixel Wrangler entry is toggled on.

📷 [screenshot: Shopify theme editor with the Pixel Wrangler app embed toggled on in the left panel]

If your theme is heavily customized and the button lands in the wrong spot, you can move the block like any other section. Placement is yours; the wiring is ours.

Step 4 — Verify on a real product page

Link a template to a product (the Quickstart walks this), then open that product on your live storefront in an incognito window. You should see a Customise button. Click it — the customizer opens as a modal over the page.

Seeing the button on a real, logged-out page view is the only confirmation that counts. The admin preview can look perfect while the storefront extension is off.

Common pitfalls

  • No button, template linked. The theme extension is off (Step 3), or the product's theme template differs from the one you enabled the block on. Products can use different templates — check the one this product actually uses.
  • Button shows but does nothing. Almost always a caching layer or a theme script error. Hard-refresh; if it persists, email us the product URL.
  • You linked the wrong product. A template's Linked products list drives which pages get a button. If the button's on the wrong page, that's where to look.

Staff access

Pixel Wrangler follows Shopify's staff permissions. Any staff account with app access can open Pixel Wrangler and build templates. There's no separate Pixel Wrangler login to manage for the Shopify side of the app — Shopify handles who gets in.

Your Wrangler AI account and billing live at pixelwrangler.io/portal, separate from the Shopify admin, because AI usage is metered outside Shopify. That's where usage, payment history, and the card on file live.

Uninstalling and reinstalling

Uninstall from Apps → Pixel Wrangler → Delete in your Shopify admin. Uninstalling removes the theme extension, so the Customise button disappears from your storefront immediately. Your templates aren't wiped the instant you uninstall — reinstall within the retention window and your templates are still there, saving you a rebuild if the uninstall was a mistake or a store migration.

Orders that already rendered keep their artwork files; those live independently of whether the app is installed.

What's next