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How to choose the right Extension Context

Choosing the appropriate Extension Context is one of the most important decisions when designing and developing an Extension.

Note: The Extension Context determines whether your extension can be installed at the project or organization level.

Why is this decision important?​

Your choice has significant impact on:

  • 🧩 Functional capabilities
  • 🔐 Technical limitations
  • 💸 Pricing strategy and monetization

Decision factors​

1. Product-specific considerations​

Think about the level at which your product delivers the most value:

  • Organization level: Makes sense if your product deals with organization-wide processes (e.g., centralized user management, contract handling).
  • Project level: Suitable for project-specific tools (e.g., deployment features, visualizations tied to a specific project).

2. Technical considerations​

Not all technical features are available at the project level:

Limitations of Project Extensions:

  • Access is limited to resources at or below the project level. This means that access to organizations, contracts, contract partners, etc., is not possible.
  • No ability to embed frontend fragments above the project level. For example, you cannot add a menu item to organizations. Conversely, extensions installed at the organization level can include frontend fragments on the project level and below.
  • No cross-project data processing or storage — unless the Contributor explicitly implements this functionality inside the extension.
  • No cross-project billing — unless the Contributor makes the extension free in perspective of the marketplace and handles billing entirely on their own.

3. Strategic considerations​

This decision will directly affect your pricing strategy:

  • Extensions installed on the project level must be paid for multiple times — once per project where they’re used.
  • On the organization level, one installation per organization is sufficient.

Example: A small tool priced at €1.50 per project can become quite expensive if a customer manages 100 projects. This might lead to that customer deciding against using the extension.