How do I make a crx / xpi file with wxt?

[ferenc-a]

I used npx wxt@latest init, and checked the docs, but couldn't find information about producing the final extension artifacts. wxt zip is not enough, but wxt submit is too much for my needs.

[aklinker1]

Only the stores can create valid XPI/CRX files, since they are signed zip files, and the browsers no longer support self-signed extensions.

So once you publish a version, you can download the files from the developer dashboards or using the API.

That means you have to publish manually or use wxt submit before you can download the signed artifacts.

[ferenc-a]

There are still ways to make browsers accept self-signed extensions, or even unzipped extensions. It would be nice to get some support for that, like a way to sign the zip / make it into the crx format.
A related issue I found: #1730
This also seems related: #962

[aklinker1]

Yes, you can create unsigned archives like so (exact commands might not work without additional flags):

pnpm wxt build -b chrome
/path/to/chrome --pack-extension=".output/chrome-mv3"

pnpm wxt build -b firefox
pnpm i web-ext -D
pnpm web-ext sign .output/firefox-mv2

While it is possible to install both these, it requires turning off security features in the browser, which I don't want to promote. So I won't be adding any sort of support for this.

You can already install ZIP files WXT produces in all browsers without disabling security.