Plain Remix app, not Shopify. Is the Hydrogen SDK usable or what are my options?
Saw that the Croct Hydrogen SDK docs mention Remix, which got my hopes up. My app is plain Remix, no Shopify anywhere.
Does the Hydrogen SDK work outside a Shopify storefront? And if not, how are people integrating Croct in Remix loaders today? i would prefer server-side so the content is in the first render.
1 answer
The Hydrogen SDK is built specifically for Shopify Hydrogen (on React Router 7 or Remix) and assumes the storefront context, Shopify analytics events, customer accounts, the consent API, all of it. It mentions Remix because Hydrogen is built on Remix, not because it targets general Remix apps. So no, it is not the fit for your case.
Two practical paths today:
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Server-side: call the HTTP Content API from your loaders. It is POST https://api.croct.io/external/web/content with an X-Api-Key header and a body like {slotId, version, context: {page: {url}}}. Content lands in the loader data, so it is in the first render with no flash of default content. This is what I would do.
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Client-side: use @croct/plug-react inside your route components. Simpler wiring, but content resolves after hydration, so you accept a brief default state before the personalized content appears.
I run option 1 in production on a non-Shopify Remix app and it has been uneventful, which is the best compliment I can give infrastructure.
that settles it, loader plus Content API it is. Thanks for the clear breakdown.