Since the transition to WebExtensions began, people have contributed bug fixes, APIs, documentation, and tons of valuable feedback. Contributors have given talks about WebExtensions at events all over the world, and developers have taken on the sometimes immense task of migrating their add-ons. It’s been a community effort, and now there are two more ways to contribute to WebExtensions, by participating in the development of APIs.

WebExtensions Experiments: tinker with APIs without having to build Firefox

Previously, if you were a developer who wanted to write WebExtensions APIs, you would have to be familiar with Mozilla infrastructure, like building mozilla-central, working with Bugzilla, and the try server. With WebExtensions Experiments, people who want to prototype APIs for landing in Firefox or use them on Nightly or Developer Edition can do so without having to build Firefox. Experiments work by allowing WebExtensions APIs to be written in another extension, so if you can write an extension, you can prototype a new API.

Help plan and prioritize APIs

Updated June 8, 2017: Before filing new API bugs, please read this page. Chances are, what you need has already been filed, so checking beforehand will help prevent duplicates–thanks!

Anyone can request an API by filing a bug, and now there is a public triage of these bugs every other week to decide which ones benefit the most developers and users, and support the WebExtensions vision of a safer, cross-browser standard for add-ons. One goal of the triage, which anyone interested is welcome to join, is to provide details and considerations for each prioritized API, making it easier for people to contribute to them. The more complex APIs are also posted on a public Trello board for better tracking.

Join us

If you want to help drive WebExtensions forward, or simply listen in on discussions, please subscribe to the dev-addons@mozilla.org mailing list.