How filtering works on the storefront

Every tag pill in the bar is a genuine link to Shopify's own tagged-article page (/blogs/your-blog/tagged/your-tag), not a JavaScript-only control. That single choice is what makes the rest of this page true.

The baseline: it always works

Because tags are real links, clicking one works exactly like clicking any other link on the internet: with JavaScript on or off, with a script blocked by an ad blocker, or if a script simply fails to load. There's no broken or blank state where the bar is visible but non-functional. The worst case is an ordinary page navigation, which is also the only case on themes that don't support the enhancement described below.

The enhancement: filtering without a reload

On themes whose blog section accepts the filter as a block placed directly inside it, and Shopify's Horizon foundation is the main example, clicking a tag instead fetches just the updated article list and swaps it into the page, using Shopify's own Section Rendering API. The address bar still updates (so the URL can be shared or bookmarked, and the back button works), but there's no full page reload.

This depends on the block being able to address the exact section that renders your articles. On Dawn, the blog template doesn't accept app blocks at all, so the filter is added as its own separate section instead. See Add the filter to your theme. That separate section can't be the one Shopify re-renders when a tag changes, so every click there is a normal page link. Both are fully functional; the difference is only whether the page reloads. See Theme compatibility for a fuller explanation of why.

Multiple tags at once

Following two tag links in sequence, or using multi-select on a supported theme, combines them with Shopify's own AND logic: articles must carry every selected tag, not just one of them. There's no "either/or" matching mode.