MagicSite

Play with your theme on your own machine

Checkout downloads your site’s theme. Edit it in any editor, preview locally, then publish when it feels right. This is not git — MagicSite keeps the versions.

1. Checkout

  1. Open your site in MagicSite and go to Local Theme Dev, or use Checkout for local editing in the builder (Mac).
  2. Unzip the download. Keep the .command file next to the theme/ folder.
  3. Double-click the .command file. It signs you in and starts a local preview.

Linux and Windows: unzip, then run the CLI commands below against the theme/ folder. You need Node.js 18+.

2. Preview locally

Nothing is uploaded while you preview. Refresh the browser to see theme code changes.

CLI=~/.magicsite/cli/dist/index.js
THEME="/absolute/path/to/theme"
node "$CLI" dev "$THEME"

3. Push a draft, then publish

Push saves a draft only you can preview online. Publish makes it live and stores a restore point.

node "$CLI" push "$THEME"
node "$CLI" publish -m "what changed"
node "$CLI" versions
node "$CLI" restore 1

After publish, wait 5–10 minutes before judging the live site. CDN and caches need a moment to catch up.

Enjoy the work

Edit React and CSS in theme/. Read theme/AGENTS.md if you use an AI editor. Do not run git in this folder — use magicsite publish -m as your commit.

Theme component contracts: Theme architecture