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

1. Event-Driven Design — Register events, handle callbacks, bucket patterns
2. Frame Architecture — Three-layer design (Core/Bridge/View), layouts, templates
3. SavedVariables — Database design, AceDB, versioning, defaults
4. Combat Lockdown — Protected functions, taint avoidance, secure handlers
5. 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

1. Headless Core: Keep logic in pure Lua functions (Layer 1)
2. Event-Driven: Avoid OnUpdate polling; use events (Layer 2)
3. Defensive API: Always check for nil and use pcall for uncertain APIs
4. Combat Aware: Never modify protected frames in combat