Ship a Chrome extension to the Web Store

The Chrome Web Store charges a one-time $5 developer registration fee. Google verifies your identity (you'll need a Google account in good standing and a working phone number). Recent policy: developers with a personal account can publish to a max of 20 extensions; group publishers + verified brand accounts get higher caps.

Manifest V2 was fully sunset in June 2024 — the Web Store no longer accepts MV2 submissions, and existing MV2 extensions stopped running for users in 2024-2025. Your manifest must be V3: service workers (not background pages), declarative net request (not webRequest blocking), and module-pattern action / scripting APIs.

The Web Store listing renders four icon sizes (16, 32, 48, 128) plus up to 5 screenshots and an optional marquee. Icons rejected most often: PNG with alpha-channel artefacts, icons that don't render at 16x16. Test the 16x16 next to the favicon in your address bar before submitting.

The Web Store listing has a name (45 chars), summary (132 chars), description (16,000 chars), and per-permission justifications. The justification is the new front-line review surface: for every permission and host you request, you must explain in plain English what user-visible feature uses it. Vague answers ('to access tabs') get auto-rejected.

Audit this extension's manifest.json + source code, then draft Web Store listing copy + permission justifications.

For the listing:
1. Extension name (45 chars max)
2. Short summary (132 chars max, single sentence)
3. Detailed description (16k chars max, lead with the user benefit, then features as bullets, end with a privacy note)

For permissions: for EVERY permission in manifest.json's "permissions" array, write a 2-3 sentence justification that:
- Names the specific user-visible feature it powers
- Explains why a less-permissive alternative wouldn't work
- Avoids vague phrases like "to enhance the user experience"

For host_permissions: same shape, per host. If you use `<all_urls>`, justify why narrower hosts won't work.

Output as a Brief surface section with each permission as a sub-heading.

Before uploading, test the extension end-to-end with both Load unpacked (your dev workflow) and a packaged .zip (closer to what users get). Also: install and test in Edge and Brave. Edge uses the same store backend (Microsoft Edge Add-ons fork is separate but identical infra), and reviewers use a clean profile.

On the Developer Dashboard: New item → upload the .zip → fill every field on the Store Listing, Privacy practices, and Distribution tabs. The dashboard will not let you submit until every required field is filled. Save drafts often.

First-submission review takes 1-7 days, sometimes longer. Reviewers focus on permission justifications, single-purpose compliance, and remote-code detection. ~30-40% of first submissions get rejected. Read the cited policy in the rejection email and fix exactly that.

Chrome auto-updates extensions every ~5 hr. To ship a new version, bump manifest.json's version field and re-upload + re-submit. There's no equivalent of TestFlight for Chrome — closest is the unlisted track or beta channel via group publishers + a separate listing.

The Web Store shows a 1-5 star rating + reviews. Bad reviews are mostly support requests in disguise: a user couldn't figure out how to enable the extension, or a permission scared them. Reply publicly. Add an in-extension help / changelog page. Watch for policy emails — Google occasionally re-reviews live extensions when policies change.