A command-line tool that lets you build cross-platform (Chrome and Firefox) web extensions based on ES modules and modern Javascript.
Exby scans your extension's manifest for script entry points in content_scripts and background.scripts. It processes your code with Rollup, performing code splitting and outputting bundled code that's compatible with both Chrome and Firefox. When combined with other compatibility aids such as webextension-polyfill, this allows you to write web extensions using modern Javascript language features, all while minimizing the amount of vendor-specific code in your project. Exby takes care of some of the most common incompatibilities encountered by extension developers and provides a better base for those looking to write for multiple browsers.
# Global install
$ npm install --global exby
# Local install
$ npm install --save-dev exby$ exby <input> [--dir <target location>] [--zip <target file>] [options...]<input> is either a path to your extension's manifest.json file, or to a folder that directly contains manifest.json.
You must provide at least one of --dir and --zip. These options refer to the output locations, with --dir outputting built extension code to the given directory and --zip outputting a zipped version of the extension in the given file.
See exby --help for a full list of available options.
- Exby automatically carries over assets included in the manifest's
web_accessible_resourcesandiconskeys. However, because no processing is currently performed on these paths, you're responsible for ensuring that none of these asset paths conflict with script outputs in the final build. The simplest way to ensure this is to keep all your assets in a separate directory from your extension's scripts. - The manifest can't pull assets from outside the directory containing the manifest (i.e. paths starting with
../inweb_accessible_resourcesoriconswill break the build). - Exby doesn't currently have support for intermediate build steps, e.g. to handle Typescript code or additional transpilation with Babel.