Speed Kit on Shopify

Install Speed Kit on Shopify

Key Takeaways

• Guided Setup: You install Speed Kit from the Shopify App Store, and a five-step wizard in your Shopify admin guides you through the rest. Our team prepares your configuration; you approve the subscription and switch Speed Kit on.
• Simple Activation: Speed Kit runs on your store through a Shopify app embed that you switch on once in the theme editor.
• Automatic Upkeep: After the setup, the app keeps Speed Kit's access to your store up to date on its own.

Introduction

On Shopify, you install Speed Kit as an app from the Shopify App Store. A setup wizard in your Shopify admin guides you through five steps, while our team prepares your configuration. The first part of this page walks you through those steps. The second part, Technical Details, explains what Speed Kit does on Shopify behind the scenes, for the technical people on your team.

Install Speed Kit in Five Steps

The setup runs in a wizard inside your Shopify admin. Each of its five cards unlocks once the one before it is done. Step 3 is done by our team; the other steps take you a few minutes each.

Step 1: Install the App from the Shopify App Store

Open Speed Kit in the Shopify App Store, or search for “Speed Kit” there, and click Install. If Shopify asks for a store, choose the one where you want to use Speed Kit.

Shopify then shows the access Speed Kit needs. Speed Kit uses it to check its installation in your theme, to create your Crawler Access Signature and to run its Real-User Monitoring. Click Install to approve.

The setup wizard opens in your Shopify admin, and its first card, “Authorise Speedkit”, is ticked. You can return to the wizard at any time under Apps → Speed Kit in your Shopify admin.

Step 2: Link Speed Kit to Your Store

Choose the tab that fits you:

• Not a customer yet: Send us your contact details with the form. Our sales team gets in touch and unlocks the next step.
• Already a customer: Invite the email address shown on the card to your Speed Kit project as a never-expiring user. Alternatively, send the address to your contact person or to support@speedkit.com. The next step unlocks automatically.

As an existing customer, you invite the address in your Speed Kit dashboard. Open Settings, enter the address under Invite Users, set the expiry to Never, and click Invite.

Step 3: Personal Onboarding

Our onboarding team prepares your configuration and your subscription. We get in touch with you when this step is done.

Step 4: Approve Your Subscription

Click Start subscription. Shopify shows your plan and price; a free trial or a discount appears on the same page. Click Approve. Speed Kit is then billed through your Shopify invoice.

Step 5: Switch On Speed Kit in Your Theme

Click Add theme app extension. Shopify's theme editor opens with Speed Kit Installation switched on. Click Save at the top right. Speed Kit is now live on your store.

App embeds are switched on per theme. If you publish a different theme later, switch on Speed Kit Installation there as well.

Done

The app now shows your Speed Kit dashboard with the status Speed Kit activated. You find it any time in your Shopify admin under Apps → Speed Kit, and in your browser at dashboard.speed-kit.com. The dashboard shows how Speed Kit speeds up your store, for example the loading time it saves and how many page views load instantly. Its menu leads to your subscription, your settings and our support.

Verifying Your Setup

You can verify that Speed Kit is correctly installed and running on your Shopify store at any time using the Speed Kit Chrome extension. Open your store in Chrome, click the extension icon, and look at the Status tab. Installation Check: Passed confirms a correct setup, and Show Details lists each requirement with a blue checkmark. Global Speed Kit Status: Activated shows that Speed Kit is switched on for your store.

If the extension detects an issue, address it in the Speed Kit app in your Shopify admin, where the installation is managed. Our guide Debugging Speed Kit explains the extension in detail.

If Speed Kit is missing on your store, check the app embed first. Open your theme editor, select App embeds, switch on Speed Kit Installation, and click Save.

Technical Details

This part is for the technical people on your team. It explains what Speed Kit does on Shopify behind the scenes.

Crawler Access

Shopify enforces bot protection on all storefronts, so Speed Kit's background requests must be authenticated with a Crawler Access Signature. Speed Kit needs this signature to fetch your pages and build your cache, and it creates and renews the signature automatically.

You can read more about this on the official Shopify help page: Crawling Your Store

How It Works

Through Shopify's Admin API, the app issues a crawler access signature for each domain connected to your store. It syncs the signature to Speed Kit. Shopify limits each signature to 90 days, so the app issues a new one once less than two weeks of the current one remain.

The access you approve in step 1 covers this.

The signatures are listed under the name Speed Kit. You can see them at any time in your Shopify admin under Online Store → Preferences, in the Crawler access section:

Shopify-Specific Configuration

Speed Kit automatically adapts its configuration to Shopify's platform constraints and applies the settings below on its own. Knowing them helps with debugging and support conversations. For a full reference of all configuration options, see Speed Kit Configuration.

Preview Mode Handling

When you preview a theme in your Shopify admin, Speed Kit automatically detects the preview cookies (preview_theme and speedkit-shopify-preview) and URL parameters (?preview_theme). Pages accessed in preview mode bypass the cache entirely, ensuring you always see your latest theme changes in real time.

Rate Limit Management

Shopify enforces strict rate limits on all server requests. Speed Kit respects these limits by sending at most 5 requests per second to your Shopify origin by default. This prevents HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) errors. During periods of high request volume, Speed Kit's dynamic throttling automatically backs off further to protect your store's availability. Customers keep receiving cached content during any throttling.

Query Parameter Handling

Shopify appends various tracking and internal query parameters to URLs. Speed Kit automatically strips these before caching to prevent unnecessary cache fragmentation (where the same page gets stored multiple times under different URLs):

• Shopify internal parameters: _fid, _pos, _psq, _sid, _ss, _v.
• Recommendation tracking: Parameters with the pr_ prefix (Shopify product recommendation tracking).
• A/B testing and preview: _ab, _fd, view.

This means two URLs differing only in these parameters correctly resolve to the same cached page.

Console Messages from Shopify's Service Worker

When Speed Kit is active, you may notice many "Fetch event blocked for" log messages in your browser's developer console, as shown in the screenshot below. Shopify's own interim service worker generates these messages, logging one for every resource it processes. They are purely informational, so you can safely ignore them, even though they appear frequently.