Inks Visual Editor

Name: Inks Visual Editor
Author: Merchant Foundry

The Shopify theme editor, for WordPress themes you actually wrote.

Inks is a full-screen section editor for componentized WordPress themes. Developers build sections as Timber partials with an ACF schema. Editors compose pages on the live front end. Agents read and write the same files. Included with Merchant Foundry managed hosting.

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Edit the real page
The preview is your front end, rendered by your theme. No canvas approximation, no builder CSS, nothing that looks different once published.
Sections are files
A section is a Twig partial, a PHP controller, and an ACF field group. Add a folder to the theme and it appears in the editor with its controls.
Presets and templates
Save a configured section as a preset. Save a page as a template. Repeat what works across the site, and across every site you ship.
Dynamic content with Inkwell
Bind any field to post, site, or meta data with the companion Inkwell plugin, so templates stay in sync with your content.
Built for agents
Schemas are declarative and sections are plain files. An agent can scaffold a section, adjust a schema, or migrate a page without touching the database.
Nothing locked in
Layouts are standard ACF flexible content in post meta. Remove Inks and your theme still renders every page.

{# sections/hero/hero.twig #}
<section class="hero hero--{{ fields.scheme }}">
  <h1>{{ fields.heading }}</h1>
  {% if fields.lede %}<p>{{ fields.lede }}</p>{% endif %}
  {% for action in fields.actions %}
    <a class="btn" href="{{ action.url }}">{{ action.label }}</a>
  {% endfor %}
</section>

Twig templates and a Vite build. No builder CSS panel.
Sections live in git with the rest of the theme.
The ACF schema drives the editor controls. Define a field, get a control.
Controllers are plain PHP you can unit test.
No shortcodes, no serialized element trees, no proprietary markup.

Developers add a section folder to the theme. Inks reads its schema.
Open a page and click Edit with Inks.
Pick a section from the library and drop it into place.
Adjust its settings and watch the live preview update.
Publish. The page is standard WordPress underneath.

Inks brings the part of Shopify that merchants love most, the theme editor, to WordPress. Sections are real theme components with a defined schema. The editor renders your live front end in a frame and updates it as you type. Under the hood, everything is standard WordPress, Timber, and ACF.

Flynt showed that componentized ACF themes work. Inks takes that model, keeps sections as Twig partials so developers keep a normal theme, and gives it the editor it deserved.

Section schemas
Shopify sections declare their settings in a schema. Inks sections declare theirs as an ACF field group.
Live theme preview
Shopify renders the real theme while you edit. Inks renders your real front end in a frame.
Presets and templates
Shopify ships section presets and theme templates. Inks has section presets and page templates.

	Page builders	Inks
Where a section lives	Builder database rows	A folder in your theme
How you style it	Property panels	Your CSS, your build
How an agent changes it	Through a bridge to a GUI	By editing files and a schema
Leaving	Rebuild the site	Keep the theme, lose the editor

Marketing teams that want the Shopify theme editor experience on WordPress.
Developers who build componentized Timber themes with ACF and want clients to stop asking for a page builder.
Agencies that ship many similar sites and want a repeatable section library.
Teams working with coding agents who want a theme the agent can read end to end.

Can I buy Inks on its own?

Not today. Inks ships as part of Merchant Foundry managed hosting, where we control the environment it runs in. If you are an agency interested in licensing, get in touch.

Does Inks work with my existing theme?

Inks is built for componentized themes, meaning Timber (Twig) partials with a defined ACF schema per section, in the spirit of Flynt. We can assess whether your theme can be adapted or rebuilt on that foundation.

Can an agent build a site with Inks?

Yes. An agent writes sections into the theme as files with a schema, and the editor picks them up. Page composition is ACF flexible content, so an agent can read or write that too. There is no builder database to reverse engineer.

What happens if I leave?

Your content is standard ACF flexible content in WordPress post meta. Without Inks the editing experience changes, but nothing about the data does.

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