Building a Chrome Extension in Replit AI Without the Setup Hell
The agent scaffolds the files; you test by loading the unpacked folder. Use it to learn the structure, then write your version.
I wanted a tiny extension that rewrites a page's text and feared the manifest and the build step. Replit's agent scaffolded the files and gave me a load-unpacked folder in an afternoon.
The agent is great at the start and rough at the finish. It built the structure fast and then fumbled the exact API I needed, so I pasted the docs and let it fix the one function.
I tested by loading the unpacked folder in Chrome and clicking through, which the agent can't do for me. That loop, break and observe in the real browser, taught more than the generated code.
Don't ship the clone as your own. Use it to understand the structure, then write your version. The agent is a patient teacher who never gets annoyed at 'why does this file exist,' which is most of learning.