publish-extension

Publish Your Command Palette Extension

Guide for distributing your Command Palette extension through the Microsoft Store, WinGet, or both.

When to Use This Skill

• Publishing your extension to the Microsoft Store
• Submitting your extension to WinGet for winget install discovery
• Setting up GitHub Actions to automate builds and releases
• Creating MSIX packages for Store submission
• Creating EXE installers for WinGet submission

Publishing Options

Channel	Package Format	Discovery	Auto-Updates
Microsoft Store	MSIX bundle	Store app, ms-windows-store:// link	Yes
WinGet	EXE installer	winget install, CmdPal browse	Yes (via manifest)

Recommendation: Publish to both for maximum reach. WinGet enables direct discovery from within Command Palette.

Workflows

Microsoft Store Publishing

See store-publishing.md for the complete step-by-step guide.

Summary:

1. Register for Partner Center
2. Update Package.appxmanifest and .csproj with Partner Center identity
3. Build MSIX for x64 and ARM64
4. Create MSIX bundle
5. Submit to Partner Center

WinGet Publishing

See winget-publishing.md for the complete step-by-step guide.

Summary:

1. Switch project to unpackaged mode
2. Create Inno Setup installer script
3. Build EXE installers
4. Submit manifest via wingetcreate new
5. Optionally automate with GitHub Actions

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio with C# and WinUI workloads
• Partner Center account (for Store publishing)
• GitHub CLI (for WinGet publishing)
• WingetCreate — winget install Microsoft.WingetCreate
• Inno Setup (for WinGet EXE packaging)

Important Notes

• Your extension's CLSID (the [Guid("...")] in your main .cs file) must be unique and consistent across all files
• WinGet manifests must include the windows-commandpalette-extension tag for CmdPal discovery
• MSIX packages require both x64 and ARM64 builds for Store submission
• WindowsAppSdk must be listed as a dependency in WinGet manifests