Chrome Extension Automated Publishing — Developer Guide

4 min read

Automating Chrome Web Store Publishing with CI/CD

Automate your extension publishing workflow using CI/CD pipelines. This guide covers GitHub Actions, API setup, versioning, and best practices for production deployments.

Chrome Web Store API Setup

Before automating, set up API access in Google Cloud Console:

Create a project in Google Cloud Console
Enable Chrome Web Store API — search for “Chrome Web Store API” in the API library
Create OAuth2 credentials — go to APIs & Services > Credentials > Create Credentials > OAuth2 Client ID (Desktop app)
Get a refresh token — follow the OAuth flow to obtain a refresh token for API access

Tip: Service accounts are not supported for CWS API. Use OAuth2 refresh tokens for authentication.

Authentication

Store your CWS credentials securely in GitHub Secrets:

Secret	Description
`CWS_CLIENT_ID`	OAuth2 client ID
`CWS_CLIENT_SECRET`	OAuth2 client secret
`CWS_REFRESH_TOKEN`	OAuth2 refresh token
`CWS_EXTENSION_ID`	Your extension’s unique ID

Security: Never commit credentials to source control. Use GitHub Secrets or your CI/CD provider’s secret management.

CLI Tools

The chrome-webstore-upload-cli package provides easy CLI access:

# Install globally or use npx
npx chrome-webstore-upload-cli upload \
  --extension-id $CWS_EXTENSION_ID \
  --client-id $CWS_CLIENT_ID \
  --client-secret $CWS_CLIENT_SECRET \
  --refresh-token $CWS_REFRESH_TOKEN \
  --upload-source dist/extension.zip

GitHub Actions Workflow

Complete workflow that builds, packages, and publishes on tag push:

# .github/workflows/publish.yml
name: Publish to Chrome Web Store

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*'

jobs:
  build-and-publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
          cache: pnpm
          
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
        
      - name: Build extension
        run: pnpm build
        
      - name: Create ZIP package
        run: |
          cd dist && zip -r ../extension.zip .
          
      - name: Upload to Chrome Web Store
        uses: asaskevich/chrome-webstore-upload-action@v1
        with:
          extension-id: ${{ secrets.CWS_EXTENSION_ID }}
          client-id: ${{ secrets.CWS_CLIENT_ID }}
          client-secret: ${{ secrets.CWS_CLIENT_SECRET }}
          refresh-token: ${{ secrets.CWS_REFRESH_TOKEN }}
          upload-source: extension.zip
          
      - name: Publish to CWS
        uses: asaskevich/chrome-webstore-upload-action@v1
        with:
          extension-id: ${{ secrets.CWS_EXTENSION_ID }}
          client-id: ${{ secrets.CWS_CLIENT_ID }}
          client-secret: ${{ secrets.CWS_CLIENT_SECRET }}
          refresh-token: ${{ secrets.CWS_REFRESH_TOKEN }}
          action: publish

Versioning Automation

Sync manifest.json version from package.json or git tags:

- name: Bump version in manifest
  run: |
    VERSION=${GITHUB_REF#refs/tags/v}
    jq --arg version "$VERSION" '.version = $version' manifest.json > tmp.json
    mv tmp.json manifest.json

Then create a tag to trigger the workflow:

git tag v1.2.3 -m "Release 1.2.3"
git push origin v1.2.3

Publishing Stages

Control when your extension goes live:

Stage	Description	Use Case
Upload (draft)	Upload without publishing	Testing the build
Trusted testers	`publishTarget: trustedTesters`	Beta testing
Public	Visible to all users	Production release

Pre-Publish Checks

Run these checks before uploading:

Lint — pnpm lint for code quality
Test — pnpm test to verify functionality
Size check — Extension must be under 256MB (unpacked)
Verify ZIP contents — Ensure all required files are included

Rollback

To rollback to a previous version:

Go to Chrome Web Store Developer Dashboard
Select your extension > Files
Click “Revert to previous version”

Or upload a previous tagged version:

git checkout v1.2.2
# Rebuild and upload
git push origin v1.2.2

Multi-Browser Publishing

Publish to both Chrome Web Store and Firefox AMO in the same pipeline:

- name: Publish to Firefox
  run: |
    npx web-ext upload --source-dir dist \
      --api-key $AMO_API_KEY \
      --api-secret $AMO_API_SECRET

Cross-ref: docs/guides/cross-browser.md for multi-browser extension development.

Semantic Release Integration

Automate changelog and version bumping with semantic-release:

# In package.json
{
  "release": {
    "plugins": [
      "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
      "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
      "@semantic-release/changelog",
      "@semantic-release/github"
    ]
  }
}

Configure to trigger CWS publish on release:

- name: Publish on release
  if: github.event_name == 'release'
  run: npx chrome-webstore-upload-cli publish

Publishing Guide — Manual publishing process
CI/CD Pipeline — Build automation
Version Management — Version strategies
Chrome Web Store API — API reference

GitHub Actions CI/CD
Chrome Web Store API -e —

Part of the Chrome Extension Guide by theluckystrike. Built at zovo.one.

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