Choose your starting point based on how much you need to change and how much you want to maintain. Building from a rich base is faster but ties you more closely to its structure; starting from scratch gives you full control at the cost of more initial work.
| Approach | Best for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| From scratch | Learning the theme system internals | A minimal, valid theme with only the required files |
| From Hummingbird 9.1 | Production themes | A full-featured fork with Bootstrap 5.3, BEM, and accessibility built in |
| Child theme | Light customizations | Inherited templates and styles with selective overrides |