# Publish an extension without building Slicer

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/publish-an-extension-without-building-slicer/12348>\
**Category:** Development\
**Created:** [July 2, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/publish-an-extension-without-building-slicer/12348 "2020-07-02T19:29:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TiphaineJh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/tiphainejh/32/6452_2.png) [@TiphaineJh](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/TiphaineJh)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/publish-an-extension-without-building-slicer/12348/1 "2020-07-02T19:29:28Z")

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Hello,  
I am currently developping a python module in slicer 4.11.0 and would like to publish it to the Extensions Catalog of Slicer.  
I would like to know if I have to build slicer in order to publish it, and if there is an up to date documentation about it because every doc I found seemed to say that I should build slicer when I don’t think it is necessary if I used python.

Thank you very much!

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/publish-an-extension-without-building-slicer/12348/2 "2020-07-02T19:40:06Z")

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If you use Python then you don’t have to build Slicer. There are just a few inconveniences:

- You need to create the .s4ext file manually. It is a simple text files and there are [lots of examples](https://github.com/Slicer/ExtensionsIndex), so it should not be a problem.
- You cannot test extension packaging. You need to double-check that you added all extra files that you want to distribute with your extension to the CMakeLists.txt.