Addon Expert
Install, update, and track every ExpressionEngine add-on from one set of control-panel screens - upload ZIPs, watch GitHub releases, update in one click - with supply-chain checks and a compatibility scan before anything touches your site.
Addon Expert is the add-on that manages your add-ons. Upload a ZIP, watch a GitHub repo for new releases, update in one click, and let it finalize ExpressionEngine’s update step for you — all from one set of control-panel screens, without FTP.
What it does
- Install from ZIP — drop in a package and it finds the real add-on folder (even nested inside a wrapper folder), validates the paths, and extracts it into place.
- Track GitHub releases — map any installed add-on to a GitHub repo (or let the author declare it in
addon.setup.php) and get a “new version available” badge on the package, plus a count in the sidebar. - One-click update + auto-finalize — download the release, swap it in, keep a backup of the old version, and run EE’s update step automatically. No trip to Developer → Add-Ons.
- Supply-chain protection — pins each repo’s GitHub identity on first install and blocks the install if it changes (ownership transfer / RepoJacking), with a full append-only audit log of every install and trust event.
- Compatibility checks — refuses to install an add-on that needs a newer PHP or EE than your server runs, and when you choose to force it anyway, scans the code first and tells you whether it’s actually safe (“no PHP 8.3 features detected” vs “uses
json_validate()— will fatal”).
Why
EE add-ons come from everywhere — the store, GitHub, a client’s zip in an email. Addon Expert gives you one place to install them, one place to see what’s out of date, and one click to update, with guardrails so a compromised upstream repo or a wrong-PHP package can’t quietly break your site.
Open source
Addon Expert is MIT-licensed and developed in the open. It is a maintained fork of Addon Manager + by Javid Fazaeli, extended with the GitHub release tracking, one-click updates, supply-chain checks, and compatibility tooling above.
ExpressionEngine 7. Requires the PHP ZipArchive and cURL extensions.