Extensions

A Matter extension is a tool built on a space’s tables. It has pages in Matter, and some extensions also have background work on your computer and routines that agents run for them. The extension’s records are the space’s own, so you see the same data in the extension and in Matter.

To build one, see What an extension is.

Open an extension

In the sidebar, each space lists its extensions under an Extensions heading, after its other items. Click an extension to open its first page. An extension with several pages expands to list them. Pages limited to other roles in the workspace aren’t listed.

The extension’s header shows the page you’re on and a menu button with the extension’s actions.

Pins and badges

To keep an extension or a page in the sidebar’s Pinned section, right-click it and choose Pin. In an open extension, the menu can also pin just the page you’re on. Unpin removes a pin.

A page can show a badge: a live count beside its name in the sidebar, such as how many items wait for you. A collapsed extension shows the total of its pages’ counts.

Trust an extension

An extension acts as you: it can read and change the tables of its space and start chats with your agents, and some run their own code on your computer. So the first time you open an extension from someone, Matter asks whether you trust them. For an extension Sam publishes (every version is signed with its publisher’s key), the prompt reads Trust extensions from Sam?

• Trust opens the extension. Every extension Sam publishes, and every new version of them, then opens without asking, whoever on Sam’s team deployed it.
• If you opened it by mistake, just go somewhere else, or choose Go back. The extension stays closed, and the question waits on its page.

Extensions you publish yourself don’t ask. To stop trusting someone, choose Stop trusting, followed by their name, from the menu of any of their extensions. See Trust and security.

While an extension runs

Opening an extension with background work starts it on your computer. It keeps running, even after Matter restarts, until you choose Stop from the extension’s menu. A green dot beside the extension in the sidebar means it’s running on this computer. The Matter icon in the menu bar also lists running extensions, each with Open and Stop.

An extension can send you notifications, at most 10 an hour. Clicking one opens the extension.

Set up an extension

Some extensions have routines that run for each member. These show Set up in their header until you set them up.

1. Click Set up.
2. Choose which of your computers runs the extension’s routines. They run as you.
3. Click Set up. If the extension has its own setup page, it opens next to ask what its routines need.

The routines then join your routines. Their results show on the extension’s pages, so they only add to your brief what needs you, such as a problem or a decision. In the extension’s menu, Move setup to this computer moves them to the computer you’re using, and Turn off for me removes them.

Versions

Each deploy makes a new version. Choose Versions from the extension’s menu to see them, with who deployed each. The one everyone uses is marked Current.

• Preview opens a version for you alone. Its header shows Preview, and it stops when you close it.
• Make current makes a version the one everyone uses: a rollback, or a preview going live.

If a new version becomes current while the extension is open, its header shows New version. Click it to reload.

Matter keeps an extension’s current version, the 20 before it, and anything from the last 30 days. Older versions, and previews more than 30 days old, are deleted.

Matter version requirements

An extension can require a range of Matter versions. On a computer outside that range, the extension doesn’t open. It shows “Update Matter to use Prospector” when Matter is too old, or says the extension doesn’t run on this version of Matter yet when Matter is too new. See Matter versions.

The Dev pill

While a developer runs matter extension dev, the extension’s header on their computer shows Dev and their dev server’s address, and its pages come from that server. Everyone else keeps using the current version.

Manage a space’s extensions

Open the space’s settings (the gear beside its name in the sidebar) and choose Extensions, or choose Manage extensions from an extension’s menu. Each extension shows its version and which computer runs its extension routines. Its menu has:

• Rename: change its name or its emoji icon.
• Move to space: its tables stay behind, so move them too or the extension won’t find them.
• Run extension routines on this computer: some routines run once for the whole extension rather than per member. They run on one member’s computer, as that member. This moves them to you, on this computer.
• Archive: the extension leaves the sidebar and stops on every computer, and its routines wait until you Unarchive it.
• Delete: deletes the extension, its versions and its routines for everyone. Its tables stay in the space. This can’t be undone.

To create an extension, click New extension there, or the + beside the sidebar’s Extensions heading, which appears once a space has an extension. Give it a name and an icon, and click Create extension. Its extension routines run on your computer until someone moves them. It stays empty until someone deploys to it (see Developing and shipping), or you ask Matter to build it.

Guests can open extensions and preview versions, but can’t create, change or delete them.