Developing WoW Addons

Expert guidance for building World of Warcraft addons with a focus on testability and maintenance.

Related Commands

• c-develop - Build or extend addon features workflow

CLI Commands (Use These First)

MANDATORY: Always use CLI commands before manual exploration.

Task Command

Create Addon mech call addon.create -i '{"name": "MyAddon"}'

Sync Junctions mech call addon.sync -i '{"addon": "MyAddon"}'

Validate TOC mech call addon.validate -i '{"addon": "MyAddon"}'

Check Libraries mech call libs.check -i '{"addon": "MyAddon"}'

Sync Libraries mech call libs.sync -i '{"addon": "MyAddon"}'

Capabilities

• Event-Driven Design — Register events, handle callbacks, bucket patterns

• Frame Architecture — Three-layer design (Core/Bridge/View), layouts, templates

• SavedVariables — Database design, AceDB, versioning, defaults

• Combat Lockdown — Protected functions, taint avoidance, secure handlers

• API Resilience — Defensive programming, C_ namespaces, secret values

Routing Logic

Request type Load reference

Addon architecture, layers ../../docs/addon-architecture.md

Event registration, callbacks references/event-patterns.md

Frame creation, UI engineering references/frame-engineering.md

SavedVariables, AceDB references/saved-variables.md

Combat lockdown, secure code references/combat-lockdown.md

Blizzard API, C_ namespaces references/api-patterns.md

MechanicLib integration ../../docs/integration/mechaniclib.md

Performance profiling ../../docs/integration/performance.md

Quick Reference

Create New Addon

mech call addon.create -i '{"name": "MyAddon", "author": "Name"}' mech call addon.sync -i '{"addon": "MyAddon"}'

Core Principles

• Headless Core: Keep logic in pure Lua functions (Layer 1)

• Event-Driven: Avoid OnUpdate polling; use events (Layer 2)

• Defensive API: Always check for nil and use pcall for uncertain APIs

• Combat Aware: Never modify protected frames in combat