Introduction

A ByteSell theme is the storefront a buyer sees. It is a Slurp project: pages, components and layouts as .slurp files, compiled to plain HTML on the server for every request. A theme adds two things to a Slurp project:

A manifest

theme.json at the theme root. It names the theme, carries its marketplace listing, and selects the editing surface merchants get.

Store data

Every render receives the store config, the merchant’s saved section content and the platform runtime URLs. No fetching or configuration is required.

Slurp and ByteSell

Slurp is the language. ByteSell supplies the data and serves the result.

Slurp	ByteSell
`.slurp` syntax, filters, `{if}` / `{each}` / `{fetch}`	Route resolution
`section { }` and `block { }` schema grammar	`templates/*.json` default content
Setting kinds and value merging	The `storefront` object
Escaping, render budgets, iteration caps	Publishing, versioning, bundle limits
`{blocks}` and `@theme` targeting	The builder and its `data-bs-*` attributes

The left column is documented in the Slurp docs and behaves identically outside ByteSell. This section covers the right column.

Editable settings

A section declares a typed schema in its frontmatter. Those fields become form controls in the builder, so a merchant can edit a heading, swap an image or reorder a list without opening a template.

---
section {
  name: "Hero"
  max_per_page: 1
  settings {
    heading: text = "Everything you need"
    accent:  color = "#6366f1"
    limit:   number = 8 { min: 1, max: 24 }
  }
}
---
<h1 data-bs-edit="heading">${ section.settings.heading }</h1>

A merchant can set only the values the schema declares. A value that fails its kind’s validation falls back to the default and never reaches the markup. Sections and blocks covers what ByteSell adds to the Slurp grammar.

Platform-owned surfaces

The platform provides these. A theme does not implement them.

Surface	Provided by
Checkout	The hosted pay page, served under the store’s own origin. The theme’s Checkout button stashes the cart and navigates.
Auth	Login, registration, 2FA, OAuth and the account area, against the store’s auth app.
Browser runtime	Alpine, the icon set, the SDK and the cart store. See Platform assets.
SEO head tags	Canonical, `og:`, `twitter:`, robots and JSON-LD, injected at the edge. The theme emits `<title>` and `meta description`.
Fonts	`${ platform.fonts_css }`, served from the store’s own origin.

A theme that emits its own og:* or canonical tags produces duplicates. The platform injects them into every page after the template renders.

Quickstart

Build a theme and deploy it to a store.

Project structure

The theme root and the published bundle.

Pages and routing

Route resolution and special pages.

Publishing

Versioning and publish validation.

Get started

Build

Ship

Reference

A manifest

Store data

Slurp and ByteSell

Editable settings

Platform-owned surfaces

Next

Quickstart

Project structure

Pages and routing

Publishing

A manifest

Store data

​Slurp and ByteSell

​Editable settings

​Platform-owned surfaces

​Next

Quickstart

Project structure

Pages and routing

Publishing

Slurp and ByteSell

Editable settings

Platform-owned surfaces

Next