Extension Architecture

Extension Architecture

Marketplace vs Package

The extension system uses two complementary sources of metadata:

Source	Location	Controller	Purpose
Marketplace	sfm-marketplace (registry.json)	SFM maintainers	Curated marketplace metadata
Package	Extension repo (package.json + built assets)	Extension developer	Runtime configuration, permissions, optional entry main, binaries

The package is what ships in the Git tag/release archive; include compiled output (for example dist/) when the extension runs code, or all manifest-referenced assets for manifest-only theme and icon theme extensions, as described in Submitting to the Marketplace.

Design Principles

1. Trust & Curation: Fields that affect user trust (publisher, description, categories) are controlled by the marketplace
2. Developer Control: Technical/runtime fields (permissions, entry point when needed, version) are controlled by the package
3. Automatic Versioning: Versions are fetched from GitHub release tags (v* pattern)

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