Why Theme Marketplace Is Not Available
Applies to: FlexLab
Overview
FlexLab projects do not include dashboard Themes or the Theme Marketplace. Visual design lives in your Git repository so developers review every change before deploy — the same way they manage custom features.
Explain this to non-technical stakeholders
- Codeless — marketing can swap designs like picking a template in a website builder.
- FlexLab — design changes are “code changes” with developer review, staging, and pipelines. That tradeoff buys custom branding and complex functionality agencies need.
If stakeholders ask “why can’t I click Themes?”, point them to this workflow difference — it is intentional, not a missing feature.
Why FlexLab works this way
FlexLab targets teams shipping custom Drupal: Twig templates, component libraries, CSS built in CI. Dashboard theme swaps would bypass Git history and break reproducible deploys.
What happens if someone opens Themes
FlexLab environments redirect away from Themes — the menu item is not part of FlexLab.
How design changes happen instead
- Developers update theme code in Git (colors, layouts, components).
- Changes merge through your usual review process.
- Pipeline deploys to staging; stakeholders approve the URL.
- Promote to production branch when ready.
Need marketplace-style simplicity?
- Stay on or prototype in Codeless, then migrate approved designs into FlexLab with agency help.
- Or run marketing microsites on Atom/Codeless and product app on FlexLab.
See When to Consider FlexLab from the Codeless book for the decision checklist.