Development stores - PlatformDTC

A development store is a free PlatformDTC store owned by your partner organization. Use it to build and test your app against a real store before review.

Draft versions install only here. A version that has not been approved can be installed on your organization’s development stores and nowhere else. Merchants’ stores only accept approved versions.
Billing is always a test. Every app subscription or charge created through the Billing API on a development store is forced to test: true, whatever your app sends. Test charges never reach Stripe, so no real money moves.
Up to 20 per partner organization.

Create a development store

Partner dashboard: open Development stores and create one with a name. CLI:

dtc app dev-store create "Order Notes QA"
dtc app dev-store list

dtc app dev also offers to create one the first time you run it, and remembers your choice in [build] dev_store of platformdtc.app.toml.

API

Both endpoints are under https://api.platformdtc.com/api/v1/appstore and accept a dashboard JWT or an sq_agt_* key holding write_apps.

List

curl https://api.platformdtc.com/api/v1/appstore/partner/development-stores \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN"
# -> { "success": true, "data": { "stores": [
#        { "store_id": "…", "name": "Order Notes QA", "store_domain": "…", "created_at": "2026-09-26T10:00:00Z" }
#      ] } }

Create

curl -X POST https://api.platformdtc.com/api/v1/appstore/partner/development-stores \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name":"Order Notes QA"}'
# -> { "success": true, "data": { "store_id": "…", "name": "Order Notes QA", "store_domain": "…", "created_at": "…" } }

An organization that already has 20 development stores cannot create another.

Install your app on it

Run dtc app dev — it pushes a draft version and opens the install page for the development store. To install by hand, send the store’s owner to the consent screen:

https://platformdtc.com/apps/authorize?client_id=sq_app_…&scope=read_products,write_products&redirect_uri=https://notes.example.com/auth/callback&state=<csrf token>

The rest of the install flow is the same as on a merchant’s store.

​Create a development store

​API

​List

​Create

​Install your app on it

Create a development store

API

List

Create

Install your app on it