> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.depict.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Onboarding

> Installing Depict: Search & Merchandising — what happens on install, how the automatic theme setup works, the setup statuses, and password-protected storefronts.

Installing Depict: Search & Merchandising triggers two automatic processes: catalog ingestion
(your products and recent purchase history) and theme setup (deploying
Depict's collection template to your theme). This page describes both, what
their statuses mean, and the store states that need extra steps.

## Limits and behavior

* Catalog ingestion starts automatically on install and includes a backfill
  of the last 30 days of purchase history. There is no fixed duration — the
  setup screen shows a live completion percentage.
* Until the first ingestion completes, only the setup screen is available;
  the rest of the app opens when it finishes.
* Theme setup does not modify your own theme files. Depict deploys its own
  copies of the collection template, product grid and product card alongside
  them; the one in-place change is enabling the Depict app embed in the
  theme's settings.
* After install, the catalog stays in sync automatically (roughly every 3
  hours).
* Reinstalling the app is safe: the existing configuration is kept and
  reactivated.
* The free trial lasts 7 days without limits; afterwards the free tier
  allows a maximum of 3 active collections. If editing is frozen, the
  configuration is kept and picking a plan unfreezes it.

## Installing the app

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install from the App Store">
    Install [Depict: Search & Merchandising](https://apps.shopify.com/depict) and
    approve the requested permissions. This registers your store with Depict,
    including its name, markets and currency.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Wait for the first ingestion">
    The app shows the setup screen with a progress bar while your catalog and
    the last 30 days of purchase history are ingested. Theme setup runs in
    parallel on Depict's side.
  </Step>
</Steps>

**Result:** when ingestion completes, the app opens on its Home page, and
your collections are listed under **Collections**. Two default
[Boost & Bury rules](/shopify-lite/boost-and-bury) are created: boost
bestsellers and bury out-of-stock products.

## Theme setup

Theme setup prepares your theme to render Depict-managed collections:

1. Depict reads your live theme and generates its own copies of the
   collection template, product grid and product card, prefixed so they sit
   alongside your originals.
2. The copies are deployed to the theme, and the Depict app embed is enabled
   in the theme's settings.

Search and recommendations each need one more step in the theme editor:
switching on an app embed and placing a block or section. The setup guides in
the app open the editor with each part already in place; the steps are written
out under [Theme setup: app embeds and blocks](/shopify-lite/theme-setup).

The setup status is shown in the app's Settings. Each theme has its own
status; a store with several themes shows the best one (success over
warning, warning over failure, failure over pending).

| Status | Meaning | What to do |
| - | - | - |
| Pending | Queued or running. Also shown when a run was interrupted (for example by Shopify rate limits) — it retries automatically. | Wait. |
| Success | Files deployed and the collection page template is wired up. | Nothing. |
| Warning | Files were deployed, but the setup is not fully wired up on that theme. Shoppers see your original collection grid, so the storefront is unaffected. | Contact [support](mailto:hello@depict.ai) to re-run the setup for that theme. |
| Failure | The setup could not complete for that theme. | Contact [support](mailto:hello@depict.ai). |

Additional theme-setup behavior:

* New, updated and newly published themes are picked up and set up
  automatically.
* If you edit Depict's copies (for example to tweak the template), your
  edits are preserved when Depict updates its files. They are replaced only
  if you also changed the original source template they were generated from.
* Deactivating a collection restores that collection's original template.

## Reinstalling

If the app was uninstalled, the app detects the dead token and shows the
reinstall flow. Going through it re-approves the app's permissions; your configuration
is kept.

## Password-protected storefronts

If the storefront is behind a Shopify password (typical before launch),
enter the storefront password in the app so collection previews and
screenshots work. Use the password shoppers would type on the storefront,
not your Shopify admin login. The app indicates when the entered password is
wrong.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.