Zeus
Shopify theme framework
The framework every Mindhive theme starts from.
- Starts from Zeus
- Every buildStarts from Zeus
- Median LCP at launch
- 1.1sMedian LCP at launch
- Performance budgets enforced
- In CIPerformance budgets enforced
Storefronts running on Zeus
Rather than beginning each build at a blank file or a marketplace download, we start from a base we maintain: Online Store 2.0 architecture, a component library your team can extend, and a build pipeline with performance budgets already wired in.
- 01
Sections from the first commit
Sections, blocks and app-block architecture, so merchandisers can build pages without a developer.
- 02
Content modelling built in
Metafield and metaobject definitions shipped with the theme rather than bolted on afterwards.
- 03
Budgets enforced in CI
Core Web Vitals thresholds fail the build, instead of being measured once after launch.
- 04
Accessible by default
Components tested to WCAG 2.2 AA — keyboard paths, focus order and contrast included.
- 05
Upgrade path
Framework updates land as reviewable pull requests, so a theme doesn't drift from the base.
- 06
Documented handover
Editor training and written docs, so your team owns the theme when we step back.
React islands, not a headless rebuild
An Online Store 2.0 theme built with React, Tailwind v4 and Vite that still works in the theme editor. Merchants keep real sections, blocks, drag-and-drop and live preview. We get a component model, a build step and a serverless gateway — without the second codebase headless would cost you.
- Sections opt into React one at a time; Liquid serialises settings, blocks and Shopify resources straight into props
- One import for the framework — blocks, cart, localisation and the theme-editor hooks
- Section state survives the editor swapping markup, so a merchant never loses their place mid-edit
- A serverless gateway fronts the Admin API and third-party services, with credentials off the theme entirely
- Built for stores with unusual business models — the ones where a conventional theme runs out of road
1{% comment %}2 The contract every React section goes through. It renders a mount3 point and the section's data beside it; islands.jsx finds the element4 and mounts the .jsx whose filename matches `component`.56 min_height holds the right shape open before the bundle runs. A mount7 point contains only a script tag, so until React commits it is zero8 pixels tall and the page assembles collapsed, then shoves everything9 down. Liquid already knows the height — a slideshow's is a setting —10 so it passes it through.11 {% endcomment %}1213 <div14 data-react-component="{{ component }}"15 class="{{ class }}"16 {% if min_height %}style="--island-min-h: {{ min_height }}"{% endif %}17 >18 {% comment %} Typed, or the browser would execute it as JavaScript. {% endcomment %}19 <script type="application/json">20 {% render 'json--section',21 section: section,22 with_product: with_product,23 with_collection: with_collection,24 product_variants: product_variants25 %}26 </script>27 </div>A base we maintain, a theme you own
- 01
Fork, don't copy
Your theme starts as a branch of the framework rather than a snapshot of it, so improvements upstream stay mergeable.
- 02
Build on the components
Sections, blocks and metaobject definitions are already there. Design work goes into what makes your store yours, not into rebuilding a cart drawer.
- 03
Ship with budgets on
Core Web Vitals thresholds and accessibility checks fail the build. Performance is a gate rather than a report written after launch.
- 04
Take updates as PRs
Framework changes arrive as reviewable pull requests against your repository. You choose what to take and when.
We had quotes from three agencies and Mindhive's timeline was the shortest by a month. The reason turned out to be that half the theme already existed and had been through production forty times.
Iris Kowalski — Operations Lead
- Surface
- Online Store 2.0 theme
- Delivered as
- A repository you own outright
- Budgets
- Core Web Vitals enforced in CI
- Accessibility
- WCAG 2.2 AA component tests
Zeus, answered
Not today. Zeus ships as part of a build we deliver — you own the resulting theme outright, including all of the framework code inside it, but there is no standalone licence.
No. Zeus is architecture, not design — the section model, the content model and the build pipeline. What a shopper sees is designed for your brand every time.
Nothing breaks. The theme is in your repository and runs on standard Shopify APIs with no callbacks to us. You lose access to upstream updates, not to your store.
A premium theme is built to satisfy thousands of merchants, so it carries settings and code paths you will never use. Zeus is built to be extended by developers on one store at a time.
Start a theme on Zeus
Every theme we build starts here. Tell us about the store and we'll scope it properly.