Spree Customization — Where Does My Code Belong?

Commands below use the Spree CLI form (spree …, Docker). On a classic Rails app without the CLI (typical pre-5.4), use the native mapping in the spree-project skill — bin/rails / bundle exec rake from the app root, paths without the backend/ prefix.

Spree is heavily customizable. The work of any Spree project is mostly customization — wiring in external services, adding custom models, tweaking behavior, extending the admin. The thing that’s hard isn’t how to customize; it’s which pattern fits a given problem.

This skill is a decision tree. It maps a customization need to the right specific skill — read those for the deep dive. Walk the table top to bottom; the higher options are simpler and survive upgrades better than the lower ones.

The decision tree

The priority order, in one sentence

Settings → Configuration → Events → Dependencies → Admin / Ransack APIs → Generators (resource or model) → Decorators → Extensions.

Lower-numbered options are easier to write, easier to test, and survive Spree upgrades cleanly. Decorators are reserved for structural changes to existing Spree classes (associations, validations, scopes, methods) — for behavioral changes (callbacks, side effects, sync), use Events instead.

Worked examples

“I need to sync orders to my ERP when they complete”

That’s a side effect that fires when an order finishes. Don’t decorate Spree::Order to add after_save — write a subscriber:

# app/subscribers/erp_order_sync_subscriber.rb
class ErpOrderSyncSubscriber < Spree::Subscriber
  subscribes_to 'order.completed'

  def call(event)
    ErpClient.sync_order(event.payload['id'])
  end
end

Then register it — subscribers are not auto-discovered (or skip both steps with spree generate subscriber ErpOrderSync order.completed, which creates the class and the registration in one go):

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Rails.application.config.after_initialize do
  Spree.subscribers << ErpOrderSyncSubscriber
end

→ See the spree-events-webhooks skill for the full event catalog and async/sync behavior.

“I need to add a Brand model that products belong to”

Brand is a brand-new resource with its own API surface. Use the generator:

spree generate api_resource Brand name:string:uniq active:boolean

Add the brand_id column to products:

spree generate migration AddBrandIdToSpreeProducts brand_id:bigint:index
spree migrate

Then add the belongs_to :brand to Spree::Product via a decorator:

spree generate spree:model_decorator Spree::Product

module Spree
  module ProductDecorator
    def self.prepended(base)
      base.belongs_to :brand, class_name: 'Spree::Brand', optional: true
    end
  end

  Product.prepend(ProductDecorator)
end

→ See the spree-resource skill for the generator details and the spree-decorators skill for the decorator pattern.

“I need to make external_id searchable in the admin orders table”

That’s a Ransack allowlist concern — not a decorator job. Use the Ransack configuration API:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree.ransack.add_attribute(Spree::Order, :external_id)

→ See the spree-api-v3 skill for Ransack details.

“I need to change how the cart calculates totals”

That’s a service swap. Subclass Spree::Cart::Recalculate and register your replacement:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree.cart_recalculate_service = MyApp::Cart::Recalculate

→ See the spree-dependencies skill for the full dependency injection pattern, the catalog of 70 core + 302 API injection points, and the spree:dependencies:list / :overrides / :validate rake tasks.

“I need to add a ‘Loyalty Points’ page to the admin sidebar”

Use the admin navigation API — no decorator on the admin controller required:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Rails.application.config.after_initialize do
  Spree.admin.navigation.sidebar.add :loyalty_points,
    label: :loyalty_points,
    url: :admin_loyalty_points_path,
    icon: 'award',
    position: 80
end

→ See the spree-admin skill for the full extension API.

“I need to add a ‘preferred carrier’ column to the products admin form”

Use the admin partials API to inject a section — no view override required:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree.admin.partials.product_form << 'spree/admin/products/preferred_carrier'

Then drop the partial at app/views/spree/admin/products/_preferred_carrier.html.erb. Permit the new attribute via:

Rails.application.config.after_initialize do
  Spree::PermittedAttributes.product_attributes << :preferred_carrier
end

→ See the spree-admin skill.

“I need to override how Spree::Product#available? decides availability”

That’s a structural change — a behavioral override on an existing model method. Decorate:

module Spree
  module ProductDecorator
    def available?
      return false if discontinued?
      super
    end
  end

  Product.prepend(ProductDecorator)
end

Call super so you extend Spree’s logic instead of replacing it.

→ See the spree-decorators skill.

Anti-patterns

These are tempting but wrong — the table above gives you a better answer for each.

• after_save callbacks in a decorator → use an Events subscriber instead. Decorator callbacks couple to model save mechanics and can break on minor upgrades.
• Reaching into a Spree controller to add a sidebar item → use Spree.admin.navigation.sidebar.add. No controller decorator needed.
• Overriding a Spree serializer to add a field → register the field via dependency injection or use Spree.api.<resource>_serializer = 'MyApp::FooSerializer'.
• Decorating a model to add ransackable_attributes → use Spree.ransack.add_attribute instead. Same outcome, no coupling to model internals.
• Building a private extension gem for one-app customization → put the code directly in app/ (subscribers, decorators, services). Extensions are for sharing across apps.
• Forking Spree → almost never necessary. If you find yourself wanting to, work through this table from the top first — the right pattern almost certainly exists.

Where to read further

• Spree’s customization docs (the canonical decision tree): node_modules/@spree/docs/dist/developer/customization/quickstart.md
• Each specific pattern’s deep dive: the linked spree-X skill in the table above
• Configuration reference: node_modules/@spree/docs/dist/developer/customization/configuration.md