# Overview

The Code Vault is where tracking scripts, custom CSS and small pieces of markup live when you want them **outside your theme files**.

Code in the Vault reaches your storefront through a Shopify app embed, not through `theme.liquid`. So it survives a theme update, and it survives switching to an entirely different theme. Snapty never writes any of it into your theme.

## Why keep code out of theme files

Pasting a script into `theme.liquid` is the most common way a theme stops being eligible for its vendor's updates — and Shopify does not warn you when it happens. It is also the code most likely to vanish when you switch themes, because it was never part of the theme you switched to.

The Vault takes that code out of the theme entirely. The theme file stays as the vendor shipped it; the script still runs on every page.

## How it reaches your storefront

<Stepper>

<Step>

You save a snippet in Snapty.

</Step>

<Step>

Snapty publishes your Vault to a small storage slot that only Snapty can write — no theme file is touched.

</Step>

<Step>

Two Snapty app embeds in your live theme read that slot and place the code on each page: one in `<head>`, one before `</body>`.

</Step>

</Stepper>

<Hint type="warning">

Step 3 depends on you. **App embeds are off by default after any app is installed**, so until you switch them on, a saved snippet reaches nothing. See [Turn on the Snapty app embeds](https://docs.foxecom.com/snapty-app/code-vault/managing-snippets#turn-on-the-snapty-app-embeds).

</Hint>

## Where each placement puts your code

A snippet is delivered to a **placement**, not to a position on the page.

| Placement | Where on the page | What can go there |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Before the closing body tag** | The very end of the page, after all theme content | Script · CSS · HTML |
| **In the head** | Inside `<head>`, before the page renders | Script · Meta and link tags |

**For scripts and CSS, placement is about timing, not position.** A script runs the same wherever it is injected; a stylesheet applies to the whole page wherever it sits. Body is the default and better for speed. Head is for code that must run before the page renders — a consent script, or a vendor tag that insists on `<head>`.

**For markup, placement is everything**, because markup is content at the point it sits. In the head, only tags that do not render are accepted — `<meta>`, `<link>`, `<noscript>`. Before the closing body tag, any HTML fragment is accepted, and it lands **at the end of the page** — the only place an app embed can put it.

<Hint type="info">

A banner above the fold, or a badge beside a button, cannot be built here — that is a theme app block rather than a Vault snippet.

</Hint>

The Vault deliberately has no *"put this next to that element"* option: binding a snippet to the theme's layout is exactly what breaks on a theme update, the event the Vault exists to survive.

A snippet is delivered on every storefront page, on every load, for as long as it is switched on. There is no per-page setting today.

## What a snippet can be

| Kind | Delivered as |
| --- | --- |
| **Script** | The contents of a `<script>` element Snapty creates |
| **CSS** | The contents of a `<style>` element |
| **HTML** | A fragment of markup, at the end of the page |
| **Meta and link tags** | Non-rendering tags in `<head>` — `<meta>`, `<link>`, `<noscript>` |

## What the Vault does not tell you

The Vault screen reports what Snapty did or read: a snippet is **stored**, **published**, and **active**, and whether the app embeds are **on**. Together those mean the code is on the page your visitors load.

<Hint type="warning">

It does not report that the code **ran**. Snapty has no presence on your storefront — it does not load in a visitor's browser and receives nothing back — so it cannot see a script execute, a stylesheet apply, or a pixel send an event. The screen says so: *"Nothing has watched these fire yet, so nothing here claims to be working."* A tick nobody earned would end the search at the exact moment it should continue.

</Hint>

To check for yourself: open your storefront in a private window, view the page source, and search for a distinctive string from the snippet. For a tracking script, the platform's own tool — Meta Pixel Helper, Google Tag Assistant — sees what fired.

## What the Vault does not do

- It does not gate anything on visitor consent. Code is delivered as written, on every page load.
- It does not place markup at a position on the page.
- It does not move code out of your theme for you. If a tracking script is already pasted into `theme.liquid`: add it to the Vault, confirm it in the page source, then remove it from the theme file yourself in Shopify's code editor.

## Common questions

<Expandable title="My snippet is saved but nothing shows on my storefront.">

The app embeds are almost certainly off in your live theme. See [Turn on the Snapty app embeds](https://docs.foxecom.com/snapty-app/code-vault/managing-snippets#turn-on-the-snapty-app-embeds).

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Does the Vault write anything into my theme files?">

No. Delivery is through an app embed; no theme file is read or written for it.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Will my snippets survive a theme update? A theme switch?">

Yes, both. After a switch, turn the Snapty embeds on in the new theme — app embeds are per theme.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Can I put a banner or a badge on a specific part of the page?">

No. That is a theme app block, placed in the theme editor.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Can a snippet load on only some pages?">

Not today.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Does Snapty confirm my pixel is firing?">

No. Use the platform's own debugger.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Does the Vault respect visitor consent?">

No. If a script has to respect consent, the platform's own Shopify channel is what gates it.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Should I paste the script tags?">

No — only what is between them. Snapty creates the element. Same for `<style>`.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="What is the budget on the Vault screen?">

A page-weight guide, not a limit. Everything active loads on every page, so the screen shows what your snippets add up to. Going past the line does not stop a save.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="If I turn a snippet off, is the code gone?">

No. Turning off stops delivery and keeps everything. Deleting is the only action that removes code, and it says so first.

</Expandable>

<Expandable title="Is there a limit on how many snippets I can have?">

5 on the free plan. At the limit Snapty says so; paid plans will raise it. Turning a snippet off does not free a slot — deleting does.

</Expandable>