Shopify Liquid Blocks and Partials: What the July ‘26 Preview Changes
Short answer: Shopify has released a developer preview that lets themes define page structure directly in Liquid templates using two new tags, {% block %} and {% partial %}. It is a preview, not a production release. Nothing on your live store breaks, and no action is required today. If you are commissioning a new theme build in the next six months, it is worth asking your developer how they plan to handle it.
What was announced
On 21 July 2026 Shopify published the Liquid July ‘26 developer preview. It introduces a Liquid-first way to compose theme pages, alongside — not instead of — the sections, theme settings and JSON templates that themes use today.
Two new tags do the work.
{% block %}
{% block %} renders a reusable theme block directly from a template. You name the block, pass its inputs, and supply body content, in much the same way you already use {% render %}.
The practical effect: page structure that previously lived in a JSON template file can now live in the Liquid template itself. Everything a developer needs to read or change sits in one place rather than being split across a .json template and the .liquid sections it references.
{% partial %}
{% partial %} defines a named region of server-rendered HTML that JavaScript can refresh without reloading the whole page.
This is the more interesting one commercially. Cart drawers, variant pickers, filtered collection grids and quantity updates are the everyday cases where teams reach for client-side rendering. {% partial %} gives you a server-rendered region you can swap out, which keeps the rendering on Shopify’s side rather than pushing it into a front-end framework.
What is not changing
This matters more than the new tags, because most of the noise around theme announcements is about things that turn out to be optional.
- Existing themes continue to work. Sections, theme settings and JSON templates are unaffected.
- Nothing is deprecated. Shopify described this as a composition model added alongside the existing theme architecture.
- It is not live on production stores. To use it you create a development store with the Liquid July ‘26 developer preview enabled.
- Dawn, Horizon and every Theme Store theme keep working exactly as they do now.
If your store is running fine today, the correct response to this announcement is to note it and move on.
Why Shopify is doing this
Two threads converge here.
The first is the direction of travel since Online Store 2.0. JSON templates split a page into a structure file and a set of section files. That was a genuine improvement for merchants editing in the theme editor, but it made themes harder to read end to end — the structure of a page was never visible in one file.
The second is stated openly in Shopify’s own announcement: the preview is designed so that developers and coding agents can read and edit everything in one place. Shopify is optimising theme architecture for AI tooling as well as for people. That is a reasonable bet, and it explains why the preview also ships new Theme Check rules for Liquid-first themes — catching syntax errors, excessive complexity, oversized files, invalid schema structure, and mismatches between block arguments, schemas and {% doc %} declarations.
The full rule set is in the Theme Check 3.28.0 release notes.
What this means if you are commissioning theme work
Three positions are defensible right now, depending on where you are.
You have a working theme and no build planned. Do nothing. Revisit when the preview reaches general availability.
You are mid-build. Do not switch. Changing architecture mid-project trades a known cost for an unknown one, and the preview is not production-ready. Finish on the current model.
You are scoping a build that starts in Q4 2026 or later. Ask the question. Not “will you use the new tags” — the honest answer is that nobody knows the GA date — but “what happens to this codebase if Shopify moves to Liquid-first composition?” A developer who has read the preview will have an answer. One who has not will improvise.
The skeleton theme release candidate (rc-v2.0.0) is the reference implementation if you or your developer want to look at real code rather than the reference docs.
The honest assessment
Developer previews have a mixed record. Some become the platform default within a year; others quietly stall. Checkout extensibility went the first way and forced a multi-year migration across the ecosystem. Others have not.
What makes this one worth tracking is that it is additive and low-risk by design, and that it lines up with a strategic direction Shopify has been consistent about for eighteen months. What makes it not urgent is that Shopify has explicitly committed to existing themes continuing to work.
Track it. Do not rebuild for it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to update my Shopify theme because of this? No. The preview is additive. Sections, theme settings and JSON templates all continue to work, and Shopify has not announced a deprecation.
Will my theme stop working? No. Shopify stated that existing themes continue to work and that this adds a Liquid-first composition model alongside the current architecture.
What is the difference between {% block %} and {% render %}?
{% render %} renders a snippet. {% block %} renders a reusable theme block directly from a template, with named inputs and body content. The syntax is deliberately similar; the difference is what gets rendered and where the structure lives.
What is {% partial %} for?
It defines a named region of server-rendered HTML that JavaScript can refresh without a full page reload. Typical uses are cart drawers, variant selection, and filtered product grids.
Can I use this on my live store? Not yet. You need a development store with the Liquid July ‘26 developer preview enabled.
Does this replace Online Store 2.0? No. It is an alternative composition model, not a replacement architecture.
Does this affect Horizon themes? Horizon themes are unaffected and continue to work as they do today.
Is this related to headless or Hydrogen?
Indirectly. {% partial %} reduces one of the common reasons teams move rendering to a client-side framework, by giving you server-rendered regions that JavaScript can refresh. It is not a headless feature.
When will this be generally available? Shopify has not announced a date. Developer previews do not carry a guaranteed GA timeline.
Should I ask my agency or developer about this? Only if you are scoping a new build. The useful question is how the codebase would fare if Shopify moved to Liquid-first composition, not whether they will use the preview today.
Last reviewed August 2026. This covers a developer preview with no announced GA date — check Shopify’s changelog before making architecture decisions on it.
Commissioning a theme build and wondering how it ages? We build custom Shopify themes as software, with a performance budget and documentation your next developer can pick up. Get in touch.