Chrome Web Store Submission: The Gotchas Nobody Warns You About
I just submitted another Chrome extension to the Chrome Web Store. I have submitted multiple extensions overtime. Mostly for my own tooling and community share or just because idea was fun. The first time took 3 attempts. The second time I got rejected in 12 hours for something completely avoidable. Here's every gotcha I hit — so you don't have to. 1. Manifest description has a 132-character hard limit Not documented prominently anywhere. You'll get a cryptic upload error: "The description field in manifest is too long." Your package.json description or wxt.config.ts description gets baked into manifest.json — check it BEFORE you zip. Fix : Count characters. 132 max. Put the detailed description in the CWS form, not the manifest. 2. Don't put a "Keywords:" line in your description I literally had: Keywords: pinterest seo, pin score, pin quality, pinterest optimizer... Rejected within 12 hours for "Keyword Spam." CWS explicitly bans keyword lists in descriptions — even if they're relevant. Your keywords should be woven naturally into prose. Fix : Write human sentences that include your keywords. "Score your Pinterest pin quality before publishing" contains 3 keywords naturally. 3. upload-artifact@v4 silently skips hidden directories If your build tool outputs to .output/ (like WXT does), GitHub Actions' upload-artifact won't find it. The glob path: .output/*.zip returns nothing because .output starts with a dot. Fix : Add include-hidden-files: true to your upload-artifact step. - uses : actions/upload-artifact@v4 with : path : .output/*.zip include-hidden-files : true 4. optional_permissions need justification too I added sidePanel as an optional permission (reserved for a future feature). CWS asked me to justify it. Optional doesn't mean invisible to reviewers. Fix : Add a justification for EVERY permission — required AND optional. Explain what it'll do and why it's optional. 5. "Support URL" is not your email address The form has separate fields: Support email : yo