Bump the version number automatically

Increase the extension's version number automatically, instead of leaving everything at 1.0.0.

Today every build comes out as 1.0.0 unless you remember to ask for something else in the prompt, or edit manifest.json by hand after downloading.

Why this is not cosmetic. The Chrome Web Store rejects an upload if the version number has not increased since the last one. So anyone publishing has to remember to bump it before every single submission, and they usually find that out when the store refuses their update.

What this should do. When you make a change to an existing extension, increase the last number on its own. 1.0.0 becomes 1.0.1, then 1.0.2. Show the current version somewhere obvious so you can see it moving. And let people set it themselves when they want to, so a big release can jump to 2.0.0.

Chrome accepts one to four numbers separated by dots. Letters and words are not allowed, so we should stop anybody entering something Chrome will refuse.

Worth pairing with the publish flow. If someone is pushing an update to the Web Store and the version has not changed since the last publish, we already know that upload will fail. We should say so before they submit rather than let the store reject it.

Requested by a customer, 4 September 2026.