feat!: Replace web-ext with @wxt-dev/runner

[aklinker1]

Overview

web-ext has few problems:

1. ~20MB install footprint (20% of WXT's total install footprint, even after using my lighter fork, web-ext-run)
2. Relies on --load-extension, which has been deprecated (there are plans to upgrade to using the CDP
3. A little slower (see ./scripts/benchmarks/browser-startup.sh)

   Package	Time to open browser (mean, N=20)
   web-ext	634ms
   @wxt-dev/runner	594ms

TODO

• Can you connect a remote debugger to it?

Manual Testing

cd pacakges/wxt-demo
pnpm dev

This should open your browser.

Related Issue

N/A

[netlify]

❌ Deploy Preview for creative-fairy-df92c4 failed.

Name	Link
🔨 Latest commit	ebdd01c
🔍 Latest deploy log	https://app.netlify.com/projects/creative-fairy-df92c4/deploys/683e253adf27e90008b3c3e6

[aklinker1]

TODO: Extract to own PR.

[aklinker1]

TODO: Extract disposable changes to own PR.

[aklinker1]

TODO: Add this flag?

3481313

[PatrykKuniczak]

This could also fix #137
If you are able to implement feature for this, in your package :)

[aklinker1]

This could also fix #137

If you are able to implement feature for this, in your package :)

Nope, not something I can implement for the same reasons mentioned in the issue.

[PatrykKuniczak]

@aklinker1 If you've decided to back to using web-ext this PR still have sense?
Or web-ext is better than web-ext-run but anyway in the future, you want to avoid using it?

[aklinker1]

I realized there was a better way to eventually add support for this while I continue developing it - hence #2078 and the accompanying PR. We don't need to hard-cut over like this PR originally did, this package isn't a full replacement for web-ext and may never be.

This PR needs changed to support @wxt-dev/runner as a peer similar to what I did to web-ext in #2079. specifically just add another try/catch statement and dynamic import for @wxt-dev/runner to let people use it over web-ext.

wxt/packages/wxt/src/core/resolve-config.ts

Lines 674 to 685 in 19c1d0a

	try {
	// This module imports `web-ext`, so if it fails, we know `web-ext` isn't installed
	const { createWebExtRunner } = await import('./runners/web-ext');
	return mergedConfig.webExt?.disabled
	? createManualRunner()
	: createWebExtRunner();
	} catch (err: any) {
	if (err?.code !== 'ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND') throw err;
	console.log('error', err);
	logger.debug('Error loading the web-ext runner', err);
	}

The goal with this package is to be a super light-weight, zero dependency alternative to web-ext, which is quite heavy.

• https://pkg-size.dev/web-ext (67MB / 325 packages)
• https://pkg-size.dev/@wxt-dev%2Frunner (36KB / 1 package)

It probably will never support all the features of web-ext or replace it, but for people that like smaller node_modules (like me), web-ext is just too big for what WXT needs it to do.

[PatrykKuniczak]

@aklinker1 I don't want to open new thread for this, but i want to know.
Are you able to reduce amount of branches, or you'll be working on it someday or you've archived it on purpose?

[aklinker1]

The 36 branches? I could clean them up if it's bothering you.