Blender Has Released Extensions Platform In Beta

The Blender Foundation has introduced Extensions section, which is going to replace add-ons and themes, allowing to install, enable and update them directly from this interface.

Accessible in the current development version of Blender, it requires an explicit authorization to connect to the extensions.blender.org server, after which a listing of extensions will be available. Extensions are not a security-oriented feature, but a way for developers to be more transparent about their intentions, introducing the concept of permissions for add-ons with the goal of making users more aware of an add-on behavior.

Anything, that can extend Blender's native functionality can be an extension. It's an archive containing the files and a manifest with metadata such as license, copyright, permissions, useful links, etc., which can be manually installed in Blender through the preferences interface, using drag-and-drop or via extension repositories.

Repositories are how extensions are made available in Blender. By default, Blender offers a local repository to manage and install extensions without any online connection and an online repository at extensions.blender.org. Here's how Extensions manager in the Blender user preferences looks like:

More repositories can be added via the Repositories pop-up window:

Add-ons and themes that shipped with Blender have been moved to the online platform and their source code is now hosted at projects.blender.org. The Blender Foundation highly encourages authors of those add-ons and themes to claim ownership by reaching on the DevTalk forum.

The Extensions platform is set to officially launch in the upcoming Blender 4.2 LTS in July.

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