Contributing - Lauloque/bl_addon_template GitHub Wiki

This repository is based on Blender 4.2+'s Extension System.

  • Addons are manually built using Blender’s CLI
  • A GitHub workflow is provided to automatically generate new release drafts

🧱 Structure

This template assumes:

  • Blender 4.2 or newer
  • A valid blender_manifest.toml at the root of the addon folder
  • A valid __init__.py at the root of the addon folder

Learn more on How to Create Extensions - Blender 4.2 LTS Manual

📦 Building the Addon

Use Blender’s CLI to build the extension. It is as simple as:

blender --factory-startup --command extension build --output-dir .\Releases

This will let Blender validate the addon and generate a valid zip file with version number from blender_manifest.toml in the repository's Releases folder.

Learn more on: Extensions Command Line Arguments - Blender 4.2 LTS Manual

🧪 Testing

Before pushing the zip into your repository - which will trigger the workflow - make sure the zip works!

  1. Open a new Blender instance from CLI

  2. drag and drop your zip into Blender to install it

  3. Test! Test! Test!

🚀 Releasing on Github

The provided workflow runs automatically when a new zip file is pushed into the Releases folder. But it can also be run manually:

  1. Go to Actions → Draft a new Release on zip push

  2. Click “Run workflow”

The workflow will:

  1. Fetch the zip's version number

  2. Create a corresponding tag at the latest commit

  3. Generate a release draft with that zip file and a generic github changelog

You can find the draft in your repository's releases page. All that remains for you to do is to complete the draft and publish it.