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Your first generation gets you most of the way there. This guide covers how to close the gap — whether you prefer describing changes in plain English or editing the code directly.

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Two paths to a better extension

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Re-prompting (AI-powered)

Write a new prompt that describes what you want to change and let Extensy regenerate. This is the fastest path for most changes. Use re-prompting when you want to:
  • Add a new feature (“now add a Clear button to the popup”)
  • Change the UI (“make the popup background dark instead of white”)
  • Expand the target (“also run on reddit.com in addition to twitter.com”)
  • Fix a behavior (“the highlights should only apply to prices, not percentages”)
Example refinement prompts:
“The extension I just generated highlights every price on the page. Now also show a floating badge in the bottom-right corner that counts the total number of prices found.”
“The Pomodoro timer works, but I want the popup to show a progress bar instead of just a number.”
“The tab list shows tabs from the current window only. Update it to include tabs from all open windows, grouped by window title.”

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Manual editing (direct code control)

Download the ZIP, open the files in a code editor, and modify them yourself. Use this path when you need precision the AI can’t easily provide. Use manual editing when you want to:
  • Use a specific CSS property or value the AI didn’t apply
  • Paste in your own API keys, credentials, or proprietary logic
  • Swap in custom icons or brand assets
  • Add third-party libraries by referencing a CDN URL in popup.html

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Manual editing workflow

1

Download and unzip

Click Download ZIP from the Extensy dashboard and extract the folder to your computer.
2

Open in a code editor

Open the unzipped folder in VS Code or any editor of your choice. You’ll see manifest.json, popup.js, content.js, and other generated files.
3

Edit the relevant file

Make your changes and save. Common targets:
  • popup.js / popup.css / popup.html — popup UI and behavior
  • content.js — how the extension interacts with web pages
  • manifest.json — permissions, name, version, entry points
4

Go to chrome://extensions

Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions.
5

Reload the extension

Find your extension’s card and click the reload icon (↺). Then refresh your test tab.

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Comparing the two approaches

If you regenerate after making manual edits, the new ZIP will overwrite your changes. Finish all AI-based refinements first, then download for final manual polish — or keep a backup of your edited files.

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Tips for effective iteration

  • Be incremental — Add one feature per prompt. Trying to change five things at once makes it harder to test what broke.
  • Reference what exists — “In the extension I just generated, make the font in the countdown display 48px.” This tells the AI exactly what to preserve.
  • Test after every change — Load each version in Chrome and verify it on a real site before moving on.
  • Describe the bug, not the fix — If something isn’t working, explain the symptom: “The highlights appear but they overlap image elements.” The AI often diagnoses and fixes the root cause better than a prescriptive instruction.
  • Share the error message — If the browser console shows an error, paste it directly into your prompt.
Extensy’s AI is good at debugging its own output. If something is broken, paste the exact error message from Chrome’s DevTools console into your next prompt and describe what you expected to happen.

Prompting guide

How to write prompts that produce great results the first time.

Download

What’s inside the generated ZIP and which files to edit.