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I asked GPT-4 to build a Shopify app in an hour (and it did!)

“You’re a helpful Shopify app developer assistant, helping to code Shopify apps.”

I lazily copy/pasted a Shopify app tutorial from Gadget.dev into the prompt to give GPT-4 some context and added:

“What other kind of Shopify app tutorials do you think you could build with Gadget using the example tutorial above? Give five reasonable Shopify app projects you think we could complete together in less than an hour.”

I wasn't sure what to expect. It has never seen Gadget, which has only been around for 2 years (and I used GPT-4 model with old context). But an hour and a few back-and-forths later GPT-4 had helped build a complete Shopify app that was firing some custom logic against a dev store.

The app stores a set of user-defined spending tier names and values in my backend, and reacts to order/create webhooks to write the appropriate value to a customer metafield based on the customer's lifetime spend every time they place an order.

Pretty neat, especially since I'm a novice JS developer. I was hoping to "prove" that GPT-4 could handle the task, so I recorded my entire experience and posted on YouTube (I also find that being on camera and explaining what I'm doing helps me stay focused).

Here's the YouTube video (40 min, FFW through the prompts and some debugging)

Hoping I can inspire someone else to try it out. Let me know if you do, and what your experience is!

on March 27, 2023
  1. 1

    Fantastic! Am soo loving these challenges indies are taking on. I would love to see more 'Learning to Code in Public'. Thanks for video.

    Here is another challenge / shopify opportunity posted by @MarkTerault after he stumbled on Gadget. Post: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/shopify-app-ecosystem-about-to-see-an-upheaval-why-i-m-getting-into-app-development-2b1f8a000f

    Challenge: Use gpt-4 to build an open source checkout.liquid solution for Shopify

    1. 1

      Oh, I hadn't even seen that post! (disclosure: I work at Gadget). Yeah, if whoever is developing is comfortable and willing to use GPT in their dev flow, it's there.

      For some people and some tasks, it might be unnecessary. But for anyone venturing into a new domain (like Mark <> Shopify), it could definitely speed you up!

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