Extension Manifests

Axon reads extension manifests from built-ins, user extensions, workspace extensions, and the local marketplace. Themes and icons are registry data, while built-in workbench surfaces are being routed through activation events so the editor stops hard-coding every feature into the main app shell.

Extension Layers

Built-in extensions ship under extensions/builtin and declare the same manifest shape as user extensions.
Axon discovers internal, user, workspace, and local marketplace packages, tracks enablement, and refreshes the contribution registry after install or reload.
Commands and views activate through onCommand and onView events before opening existing workbench surfaces or a generic extension view bridge.

Schema URL

https://axoneditor.com/schemas/extension/v0.1.0.json

Extension Locations

Axon loads bundled extensions from the app, user extensions from app data, workspace extensions from .axon/extensions, and marketplace installs from Axon's local extension package cache.

Manifest Example

{
  "$schema": "https://axoneditor.com/schemas/extension/v0.1.0.json",
  "id": "example.axon-theme",
  "name": "Example Axon Theme",
  "publisher": "GordenArcher",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "A local theme extension for Axon.",
  "author": "Gorden Archer",
  "categories": ["Themes"],
  "activationEvents": ["onStartup"],
  "contributes": {
    "commands": [],
    "themes": [
      {
        "id": "example-dark",
        "label": "Example Dark",
        "path": "./themes/example-dark.json"
      }
    ],
    "iconThemes": [],
    "languages": [],
    "snippets": [],
    "views": [],
    "terminalProfiles": [],
    "agents": []
  }
}

Contribution Types

themes

Theme contribution files loaded from built-in, user, workspace, or marketplace extension packages.

iconThemes

File and folder icon packages that can become selectable icon themes as registry wiring continues.

views

Workbench surfaces such as Search, Settings, Source Control, Terminal, Problems, Testing, and Agent.

commands

Command metadata that can activate built-in or runtime extension commands.

terminalProfiles

Terminal profile contributions used by the terminal workbench and future profile picker.

agents

Agent contributions that identify Axon Agent surfaces and local agent capabilities.

languages

Language declarations with extensions, filenames, aliases, and optional configuration paths.

snippets

Snippet contribution files grouped by language.

Current Boundary

Axon has runtime command activation and a registry-backed view bridge, but extension-owned renderer UI is still intentionally isolated. Built-in views open their native workbench surfaces today; third-party views use a generic extension view surface until Axon has a full renderer view-provider boundary and extension asset protocol.