[Feature]: Feedback for shopify app build & shopify app deploy --no-build

[patjakubik]

What area(s) will this request affect?

App

What type of change do you want to see?

Substantial change to existing feature

Overview

Hey there,

After the --no-build flag was introduced (#5943), I started experimenting with my CI setup, building extensions with shopify app build and deploying them using shopify app deploy --no-build.

Overall, I’m loving it! I have a couple of suggestions though:

1. The shopify app build command relies on the config file, but it only uses extension_directories from it. Could we pass directories as an argument instead of needing a config file? The goal is to build once and switch between environments without relying on the config. For now, we’ve got a workaround using a shopify.app.build.toml file, like this:

# This file is required by Shopify CLI to run the `shopify app build` command
# ---
# The actual configuration is deployed during `shopify app deploy --no-build` command from either:
# - shopify.app.staging.toml 
# - shopify.app.production.toml

client_id = ""
extension_directories = ["packages/extensions/*"]
application_url = "https://.com"
embedded = true

[webhooks]
api_version = ""

[auth]
redirect_urls = []

2. The shopify app build command doesn’t seem to validate extension TOML files. It’s fine for now, but it’d be nicer if issues like that were caught early.

Thanks!

Motivation

Improving app CI/CD

[amcaplan]

RE 1, I think this is the right solution. We need the app TOML file as a marker of the app root. Otherwise, there really isn't anything obvious in your filesystem that indicates where your app root is. We don't assume you're currently in the root directory; you can be anywhere inside your app. That only works because we search recursively upwards until we find an app TOML. So I don't think this is likely to change, but having a TOML for the build case sounds like a great solution for your case!

RE 2, there's a bit of tension, because the schema for extension TOML files is stored on Shopify's systems, but we want the build command not to connect to the backend, and the CLI itself isn't really supposed to know too much about individual extensions (this keeps it maximally flexible/future-proof). So we are thinking about ways to improve this, but there are questions about what way of doing things will be best for UX.