Documentation / Getting Started
Setup
Complete these one-time setup steps before creating your first policy. Skipping any of them will result in FairDrop not working correctly on your store.
1
Confirm you're on Shopify Plus
FairDrop requires Shopify Plus. The checkout-enforcement features it depends on — Shopify Functions and checkout extensibility — are not available on Basic, Shopify, or Advanced plans. To check your plan, go to Settings → Plan.
2
Confirm a published checkout configuration
FairDrop's enforcement runs inside Shopify's checkout, so your store must be on the modern checkout — not
checkout.liquid. On Shopify Plus this is the default. If you previously used checkout.liquid customizations, create and publish a checkout configuration under Settings → Checkout first.3
Enable customer accounts
FairDrop's account-required rule and passkey enrollment both depend on Shopify customer accounts being active. Go to Settings → Customer accounts and set the login experience to Accounts are optional or Accounts are required.
4
Install FairDrop
Install FairDrop from the Shopify App Store and complete the OAuth flow. FairDrop requests the permissions it needs to function — you'll see a summary screen before confirming.
Permissions requested
- Customer accounts — read login status and write passkey verification proofs
- Products — tag protected items with their assigned policy
- Checkout — run the Function that evaluates your rules at checkout time
5
Enable the FairDrop app embed in your theme
The FairDrop Cart Gate embed runs the passkey flow on your storefront. Without it, buyers won't see the enrollment or verification prompt — checkout-level rules still fire, but the storefront gate won't.
- Go to Online Store → Themes
- Next to your active theme, click the pencil (Edit theme) icon
- In the left sidebar, click App embeds and find FairDrop Cart Gate
- Enter FairDrop's Numeric ID and enable the app
FairDrop's Numeric ID is 394112270337 — the same on every store.
Pencil icon, not Customize
The Customize button opens the drag-and-drop editor — App embeds is not there. The pencil icon opens the theme code editor, where App embeds lives.
Once the required steps are complete, open Apps → FairDrop in your Shopify admin. You should see the FairDrop dashboard, ready for your first policy.
What to expect
Your first drop is free— one policy protecting one product (all its variants included). Enforcement isn't an always-on switch: you schedule it to a window (a start and end time, up to 30 days). See Pricing and Creating a Policy for the details.