How to create a Shopify Partner API token

The Partner API is how you read earnings, installs, and subscription events for apps you publish. It is not the Admin API for a merchant store, and the token is not the API key on an app’s settings page. You create a Partner API client for your organization, then call https://partners.shopify.com/{partner_id}/api/… with that token.

Create the client

Shopify documents this under the Partner API authentication guide. In the Dev Dashboard, open Organization settings, then Users, then Security. Under Partner API clients, choose Add Partner API client. From the Partner Dashboard, Settings opens the same area.

Name the client after the tool that will use it. For a revenue dashboard, grant View financials and Manage apps. View financials is what unlocks transactions, including subscription sales. Manage apps is what unlocks the app, its installs, and its charge events. You do not need Manage themes unless you are reading theme sales.

After you add the client, copy the access token before you leave the page. Shopify does not show it again. Treat it like a password. If it leaks, rotate it from the same screen. A rotation can issue a new token while the old one still works, so you can switch tools before you revoke the old token.

Use the Partner Dashboard id

The id in the request URL is the number in https://partners.shopify.com/{partner_id}. Shopify’s docs are explicit that the number in the Dev Dashboard URL is a different organization id and will not authenticate this API. AppDeck asks for this as the Partner organization ID, and the help text points at the Partners Dashboard URL for that reason.

Pass the app id as well

Open the app in Partners or the Dev Dashboard and copy the numeric id from the URL. You can also paste it as gid://partners/App/123. With that id, a tool can query the app directly. Without it, the only general approach is to scan transaction history for the app’s name, which is slow and breaks if the name does not match exactly.

Check that the token can see money and installs

A token with the wrong permission fails in a confusing way: the call succeeds enough to look connected, then transactions or events come back empty. Confirm both View financials and Manage apps before you store the token. Store it on a server. Do not put it in a public env var or a browser bundle.

Once the token works, the next step is turning those events into per-app MRR. AppDeck verifies the org id, token, and app before it saves them. The flow is on how it works, and you can create an account when you want that done for the whole portfolio.