create-vextro

CLI for scaffolding modern browser extensions with Vite, React, and Tailwind CSS.

Vextro creates a browser extension project on top of Vite's React + TypeScript template. It adds popup and options UIs, background and content scripts, storage helpers, icons, and browser-specific extension configuration for Chrome/Edge or Firefox.

Features

• Fast Vite-based development workflow for popup and options pages.
• React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS preconfigured out of the box.
• Browser-specific extension setup: Chrome and Edge use CRXJS with a typed src/manifest.ts. Firefox uses vite-plugin-web-extension with src/manifest.json.
• Starter boilerplate for popup, options, background, content, and storage utilities.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer
• npm
• Chrome, Edge, or Firefox for local extension testing
• macOS with Xcode only if you plan to convert a Chrome build for Safari

Browser Support

Browser	Status	Flag	Notes
Chrome	Template included	--chrome	Uses CRXJS and typed src/manifest.ts
Edge	Template included	--chrome	Same Chromium template as Chrome
Firefox	Template included	--firefox	Uses vite-plugin-web-extension and src/manifest.json
Safari	Manual conversion	n/a	Convert Chrome output with xcrun safari-web-extension-converter

Quick Start

You can scaffold a new project with npm create. No global install is required.

# Provide a project name and choose the browser interactively
npm create vextro@latest my-extension

# Or skip the browser prompt
npm create vextro@latest my-extension -- --chrome
npm create vextro@latest my-extension -- --firefox

npm create automatically inserts -- before package-specific flags. You can also run the package directly with npx, for example npx create-vextro@latest create my-extension --chrome.

Vextro scaffolds the project and installs dependencies for you. Then start the dev workflow:

cd my-extension
npm run dev

Load the Extension During Development

Chrome / Edge

1. Open chrome://extensions or edge://extensions.
2. Enable Developer mode.
3. Click Load unpacked and select the generated dist/ folder.

Firefox

1. Open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
2. Click Load Temporary Add-on.
3. Select any file inside the generated dist/ folder.

Safari (macOS only)

1. Scaffold a Chrome project with --chrome.
2. Run xcrun safari-web-extension-converter dist/.
3. Build and run the generated Xcode project.

CLI Commands

# Interactive setup
npx create-vextro@latest create <project-name>

# Target a specific browser
npx create-vextro@latest create <project-name> --chrome
npx create-vextro@latest create <project-name> --firefox

# Overwrite an existing directory
npx create-vextro@latest create <project-name> --chrome --force

# Global flags
npx create-vextro@latest --help
npx create-vextro@latest --version
npx create-vextro@latest --verbose create <project-name> --chrome

--verbose is a global flag, so place it before the explicit create command.

What You Get

Every generated project includes:

Feature	Description
Popup	React popup with a chrome.storage demo
Options page	Settings page with save and load via storage sync
Background	Chrome template uses a service worker; Firefox template uses a module background script
Content script	Injected script with background messaging example
Storage utils	Typed wrapper around chrome.storage.sync
Manifest setup	Chrome gets src/manifest.ts; Firefox gets src/manifest.json
TypeScript	Type-safe React and extension code
Tailwind CSS	Utility-first styling preconfigured

What's Included

Each generated project follows this structure. The manifest file differs by browser target.

my-extension/
|-- public/
|   |-- icon.png
|   `-- icons/
|-- src/
|   |-- background/
|   |-- content/
|   |-- options/
|   |-- popup/
|   |-- utils/
|   |-- styles.css
|   `-- manifest.ts or manifest.json
|-- vite.config.ts
|-- tsconfig.app.json
|-- tsconfig.json
`-- package.json

Contributing

We welcome contributions. See docs/CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and contribution guidelines.

License

MIT © CodeCanvas Collective