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Manifest V3 generator

Manifest V3 contextMenus permission

contextMenus lets the extension add its own entries to the browser's right-click menu, scoped by context — a selection, a link, an image, an editable field, the page itself — and receive a click event with the selected text or link URL attached.

Create the entries once in the service worker's onInstalled handler rather than at the top level, because a Manifest V3 service worker restarts often and duplicate creation throws. No install warning is shown for this permission.

Context menu at a glance

Manifest key
"permissions": ["contextMenus"]
What it enables
Add the extension's own entries to the right-click menu.
Install warning
None — granted silently at install.
Cross-browser API
browser.contextMenus via webextension-polyfill

The manifest that declares it

Manifest with this permission

manifest.json
{
  "manifest_version": 3,
  "name": "my-extension",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "action": {
    "default_popup": "src/popup.html"
  },
  "background": {
    "service_worker": "src/background.ts",
    "type": "module"
  },
  "permissions": [
    "contextMenus"
  ]
}

This manifest installs with no permission warning.

contextMenus, answered

The longer version is in the guide Manifest V3 permissions: a practical guide.

What does the contextMenus permission do in Manifest V3?
Add the extension's own entries to the right-click menu. It is declared as the string "contextMenus" in the manifest's permissions array; the browser grants it at install time, and the extension's service worker, popup and other pages can then call the matching API.
Does contextMenus show an install warning?
No. contextMenus is granted silently — it appears in the manifest but adds nothing to the install prompt. Host permissions and warning-bearing permissions such as tabs or downloads are what change the prompt.
Can I request contextMenus at runtime instead?
Yes. Move it from permissions to optional_permissions and call browser.permissions.request({ permissions: ["contextMenus"] }) from a user gesture when the feature is first used. The manifest generator emits the install-time form; optional grants are an edit to that JSON.

Build the whole manifest

The Chrome extension manifest generator declares every permission with its install warning shown up front, adds the surfaces the browser opens, and validates content-script match patterns before they can reject the whole extension. In the Nodlume workspace the same selection becomes a complete Manifest V3 project with a service worker and a Vite build.

Open the generator

Other Manifest V3 permissions

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