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Extensy is only as powerful as your prompt. This guide covers how to structure your request, what to include, what to avoid, and how to refine results until your extension does exactly what you want.

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Anatomy of a great prompt

High-performing Extensy prompts follow this four-part structure: [Action] + [Target] + [Behavior] + [UI/Style]

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Bad vs. good prompt examples

The bad prompt gives the AI nothing to work with — no target, no trigger, no UI. The good prompt specifies the symbols to detect, the visual treatment, and the badge location.

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Prompt templates by category

Use these as starting points and fill in the bracketed sections.
Good for: reading tools, accessibility adjustments, site-specific style overrides.
Good for: time trackers, site blockers, focus aids, habit reminders.
Good for: AI-powered tools, data lookups, translation, content enrichment.
Good for: tab organization, session saving, workspace management.

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What to include

  • Website URLs — If your extension targets a specific site, name it: twitter.com, github.com, wikipedia.org.
  • Visual details — Colors, positions (top-left, bottom-right), button labels, font sizes.
  • Trigger conditions — “Run on page load” vs. “only when I click the toolbar icon” — these produce very different code.
  • DOM selectors — If you know a CSS class name, element ID, or ARIA label, include it. The AI will use it directly rather than guessing.
  • Storage needs — If your extension needs to remember settings (like an API key or a toggle state), mention that you want to use chrome.storage.

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What not to include

  • Backend logic — Extensy generates Chrome extensions, which run entirely client-side. It cannot host a database, manage server-side sessions, or provide API keys on your behalf.
  • OAuth flows — Full OAuth redirect flows require a backend server. Extensy can generate the client-side portion, but you need to provide and host the OAuth server yourself.
  • System-level actions — Chrome extensions are sandboxed. They cannot delete files, control other applications, or access OS settings.
Extensy handles frontend and client-side logic. For anything that requires a running server — databases, authentication backends, webhook listeners — you need to supply your own API endpoints and pass them into the prompt.

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Iteration strategy

Your first generation rarely needs to be perfect. If the result is 80% there, use a refinement prompt rather than starting over. A good refinement prompt references what already exists and adds one specific change:
“The extension I just generated highlights prices in green. Now add a button to the popup labeled ‘Clear highlights’ that removes all highlight spans from the current page.”
“The popup timer works, but the font is too small to read comfortably. Increase the font size of the countdown display to 48px.”
“The tab list shows all open tabs, but I also want tabs from other windows. Update the extension to show tabs across all windows, grouped by window.”
Add one feature at a time. Refinement prompts that target a single change are faster to generate, easier to test, and less likely to break what’s already working.

Edit & iterate

Deeper guide on re-prompting, manual edits, and knowing when to use each.

First extension

Walk through a complete example from prompt to tested extension.