Non‐technical summary  Shivering is an involuntary somatic motor response that occurs in skeletal muscles to produce heat during exposure to cold environments or during the development of fever. This study describes the brain circuitry mechanism that produces shivering. The reception of either cutaneous cool‐sensory signals or pyrogenic signals by neurons in the preoptic area, a thermoregulatory and febrile centre, leads to activation of descending excitatory signalling through hypothalamic and medullary sites to drive shivering. Intriguingly, this central command pathway for shivering parallels that for sympathetically regulated non‐shivering thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. The present results promote our understanding of the brain mechanisms for thermal homeostasis that orchestrate the regulation of the somatic and autonomic motor systems to meet the critical demand for regulation of the body and brain temperatures.