065 - From Themes to SaaS: Anne Thomas on Cart to Cart, Design Packs, and Community

In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Anne Thomas, co-founder of Design Packs. Anne shares her journey in the Shopify ecosystem, her recent foray into backend development with Supabase and Claude AI, and the launch of her new podcast, Cart to Cart.

The conversation dives into the nuances of building with Shopify's flexible theme blocks, managing design systems, and the realities of using AI for coding and QA. Anne also discusses her community-building efforts with "Women Unified in Commerce".

STAY CONNECTED
Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more expert insights: https://liquidweekly.com/

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Anne's Background & Side Projects: From starting with Shopify themes in 2014 to building a horse-riding tracking app.
• Cart to Cart Podcast: Anne introduces her new podcast co-hosted with Trudy McNabb, Brenda Storer, and Diana Birsan.
• Women Unified in Commerce: Insights into the grassroots community meetups Anne and Trudy host in Toronto.
• Developer vs. Merchant Feedback: How the Design Packs team navigates and balances feedback.
• Theme Blocks & Design Systems: A deep dive into Shopify's flexible blocks, modern theme architecture, and CSS overrides.
• AI in the Dev Workflow: The realities of using AI tools like Claude and Cursor's Bugbot for writing code and PR reviews.

FIND ANNE ONLINE & RESOURCES

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annethomas8/
• Twitter(X): https://x.com/alfalfaanne
• Design Packs: https://design-packs.com/
• Cart to Cart Podcast: https://cart2cartpodcast.com
• Women Unified in Commerce: LinkedIn Group

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Introduction & Anne's Background
03:30 - Building with Supabase & Claude AI
08:40 - The "Cart to Cart" Podcast
30:30 - "Women Unified in Commerce" Meetups
37:50 - Balancing Merchant and Developer Feedback
43:30 - Navigating Shopify's Flexible Theme Blocks
50:15 - Design Systems & CSS Overrides in Themes
58:15 - AI Realities: Coding, QA, and Automated PR Reviews
01:09:40 - Dev Changelog Highlights
01:14:10 - Picks of the Week

DEV CHANGELOG

• ActionBar removed on mobile: TitleBar primary action now renders as an icon button - https://shopify.dev/changelog/primary-action-icon-replaces-actionbar-on-mobile
• New CSS variable for mobile safe area insets - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-css-variable-for-mobile-safe-area-insets
• Automated testing for Shopify UI extensions with @shopify/ui-extensions-tester - https://shopify.dev/changelog/automated-testing-for-shopify-ui-extensions-with-shopify-ui-extensions-tester
• New discount fields in the Storefront API's cart types - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-discount-fields-in-the-storefront-cart-graphql-api
• Shopify AI Toolkit: Connect your AI tools to the Shopify platform - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-ai-toolkit-connect-your-ai-tools-to-the-shopify-platform
• Shopify Scripts will be deprecated on June 30, 2026 - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-scripts-will-be-deprecated-on-june-30-2026
• (non-dev) Checkout Blocks: Order value limits available on all plans - https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/checkout-blocks-order-value-limits-available-on-all-plans

PICKS OF THE WEEK

• Karl: Simple Truth low-carb crisp crackers and reading the book Dune.
• Anne: Swapping the morning doomscroll for a daily crossword puzzle. Try https://www.dictionary.com/games/crossword to start.
• Taylor: Taking the kids to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie.