Getting started
Build on Ostorya
What you can build on Ostorya, and where to start.
Ostorya is a commerce platform for cash-on-delivery sellers. The merchant works in a desktop in the browser: a menu bar, a dock and apps. Every app is an iframe, including Ostorya's own Store. Your app runs on your own server, the desktop frames it, and it reads and writes the merchant's data through the same Admin GraphQL API the Store uses.
| Surface | What it is | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Apps | Your web app, opened from the dock inside the merchant's desktop. Talks to the desktop with App Bridge. | Build an app |
| Admin GraphQL API | Products, orders, customers, delivery, discounts, themes… Shopify-style conventions. Version 2026-01. | API reference |
| Storefronts | Each shop's public site on <handle>.ostorya.store, rendered from a theme (sections, blocks, settings). | Storefronts and themes |
If you know Shopify#
You already know most of it. Ostorya keeps Shopify's object model and API conventions: global IDs, Relay connections withedges and nodes, userErrors on every mutation, the query: search syntax, calculated query cost and frozen API versions. The differences come from cash on delivery: orders are confirmed by phone, stock is reserved then committed, parcels can be refused, and cash comes back from the delivery company. Read The COD order lifecycle.
Apps being built now#
The dock already has places for WhatsApp, Ads Manager and Finder. They show "isn't connected yet" until their developer's URL is registered. If you build one of them, follow Build an app from top to bottom: it ends with your app running in the desktop.