Forever Addons

For addon authors · Windows

AddonStudio

Desktop IDE for World of Warcraft addons, with an emulated game and MCP for AI agents.

Edit your addon, check it, run its tests and play with it in an emulated game client — frames you can click, events you can fire, a debugger that stops on your breakpoints. AI agents can do all of it too, over MCP.

A quick tour

What it does

Files and editor

the addon's files in TOC order, Lua/XML highlighting, wowlua's diagnostics, completion, breakpoints in the gutter.

Tests

runs wowlua test; addons without their own tests get a workspace smoke test.

Game

starts the addon in wowlua's emulated client: a preview you can click (also in its own resizable, full-screen window), the frame tree, events with payloads (e.g. PLAYER_LEVEL_UP), slash commands, a manual clock, runtime errors.

Debugger

breakpoints, break on errors, stepping, call stack, locals, evaluate.

MCP

a loopback MCP server; Settings shows the claude mcp add --transport http addonstudio <url> command.

Built for AI agents too

AddonStudio runs a local MCP server while it is open. Add it to Claude Code (or any MCP client) with one command from Settings, and an agent can open your addon, run it in the emulated game, fire events, click frames, take screenshots, read errors and step through the debugger.

claude mcp add --transport http addonstudio http://127.0.0.1:49980/mcp

studio_state open_project list_files read_file diagnostics last_errors run_tests start_session stop_session fire_event advance interact world screenshot frames output set_breakpoints debug stack inspect

Screenshots

AddonStudio: Game preview in its own window
Game preview in its own window
AddonStudio: Running addon output and frame tree
Running addon output and frame tree
AddonStudio: Debugger paused on a breakpoint
Debugger paused on a breakpoint
AddonStudio: Tests
Tests
AddonStudio: Light theme
Light theme

Your own game client draws the textures

AddonStudio ships no Blizzard files. Point it at your World of Warcraft folder and the preview reads the real textures and fonts straight from your client, read-only. Without a client, frames, text, layout and events still work, with placeholder textures.

Preview without a game client: magenta placeholders
Without a client
Preview with the WoW Forever client: real textures
With the WoW Forever client

System requirements

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The download is a self-contained app; nothing else to install.
  • Internet on the first start: AddonStudio downloads wowlua (about 100 MB unpacked) from its official GitHub release and checks its checksum.
  • For real textures: your own World of Warcraft client, for example WoW Forever. Optional.
  • For the license check: internet every few days; it keeps working offline for up to 14 days.

FAQ

Is there a free trial?

Yes. AddonStudio runs with every feature for 14 days, no card needed. After that it asks for a license key.

What do I get for €5?

A license key with one year of updates. Every AddonStudio version released during that year keeps working for good, even after the year ends; renew to get the versions after it. Prices include VAT.

On how many computers can I use it?

One key works on up to 3 PCs. Move it to a new PC with Deactivate on this PC in Settings.

Do I need World of Warcraft installed?

No. Without a client the preview uses placeholder textures; everything else works. With your own client (any folder that holds .build.info and Data) the preview draws the real textures and fonts. AddonStudio only reads the client and never changes it.

Which addons does it work with?

It is built and tested with addons for WoW Forever, including every addon on this site. The emulator follows the modern WoW interface, so many other addons run too, but they are not tested.

Does it touch the game or my account?

No. AddonStudio never runs inside the game, never logs in and never talks to Blizzard. It runs your addon in its own emulated client on your desktop.

Why are the addons free and AddonStudio not?

Blizzard's rules say addons must be free, and they are. AddonStudio is a separate development tool for people who write addons; the money keeps it and the addons going.

What is wowlua?

AddonStudio is built on wowlua by Domenik Irrgang, an open-source (MIT) language, emulator and toolchain for WoW addons. It gives AddonStudio its emulated client, type checker, test runner and debugger. Many thanks to its author.

Who do I ask when something goes wrong?

The Forever Addons Discord, channel #help. For a payment or invoice question, reply to the receipt e-mail from Lemon Squeezy.

What's new

0.3.4 2026-11-12

Bug fixes

  • An addon's own ## X-… lines reach the emulated client, so C_AddOns.GetAddOnMetadata("MyAddon", "X-Discord") answers what the TOC says instead of nothing. The generated workspace manifest carried the fields World of Warcraft defines and dropped everything the addon had added of its own.
0.3.3 2026-11-12

Changes

  • The preview no longer shows Blizzard's Issue Reporter. The emulated client is a beta build, so Blizzard's own beta-only feedback addon loaded with its interface and put a button in the middle of every preview and screenshot that a player's client never shows. Settings → Emulator → Show Blizzard's PTR Issue Reporter brings it back.

Bug fixes

  • An addon's own textures draw in the preview instead of the magenta placeholder. Only the Lua, XML and TOC files reached the emulated client, so an addon's icon.tga and anything under media/ was missing; the workspace now ships them with the addon. Magenta again means only that wowlua cannot read the World of Warcraft client.
  • Editing an addon's .toc shows up in the next session. The workspace manifest was generated the first time an addon was opened and never again, so a new ## Version, title, icon, saved variable or Lua file was ignored for as long as the workspace existed. It now follows the TOC on every open and still keeps hand edits of its own.
0.3.2 2026-11-08

Bug fixes

  • The lines that say which World of Warcraft client the preview draws with, and that wowlua is ready, reach the log and the Logs page again. They were written at the debug level, so at the default log level 0.3.1 kept them to itself and the Logs page stayed silent about the very thing it was meant to explain.
0.3.1 2026-11-08

Bug fixes

  • The preview draws real textures from a WoW Forever client again. The client moved its game data into a new folder, which the pinned wowlua 0.13.6 did not follow, so previews went back to magenta placeholders even with the client folder set correctly; AddonStudio now uses wowlua 0.13.8, which reads the client.

Changes

  • A client that cannot be used no longer fails silently: the log says which client the preview draws with, and Settings warns when the folder is not a World of Warcraft client. Magenta placeholders in the preview now mean that wowlua could not read that client, and Settings says so.
  • Installing a new wowlua release removes the folder of the previous one instead of leaving a few hundred megabytes behind in the data folder.
0.3.0 2026-11-08

Features

  • AddonStudio updates itself: new builds come from the TomLabs app store (https://apps.tomlabs.cz), the update banner offers them, and Check for updates is in Ctrl+K. Settings → update feed takes a different manifest URL, or off to stop checking; an empty field now means the app store instead of no updates.
  • Real textures and fonts in the preview from a World of Warcraft client, including WoW Forever: point Settings → World of Warcraft folder at the client (the folder with .build.info); it is only read.
  • Settings shows the client's product, version and flavor folders, and Detect looks for an installed client.

Changes

  • Picking the flavor folder (_classic_beta_) or InterfaceAddOns sets the client folder above it; a folder that is not a WoW client is refused on save.

Bug fixes

  • wowlua processes (language server, game session, test runs) no longer keep running after AddonStudio crashes or is killed.
  • MCP read_file, list_files and the editor no longer read, list, open or save files through a link inside the addon that points outside it.
0.2.0 2026-10-29

Features

  • Pop-out game preview: a button in the GAME PREVIEW header (or "Open preview window" in Ctrl+K) opens the preview in its own resizable window with maximize and full screen (F11, Esc to leave); refresh, Frame only and click-to-interact work there too, and the window comes back where it was last closed.

Changes

  • Preview clicks are mapped in one place for both windows.

Bug fixes

  • A click in the preview with "Frame only" on landed at the wrong spot: it is now offset by the frame's position.

Credits

Built on wowlua © 2026 Domenik Irrgang, MIT License. World of Warcraft textures and interface code come from Blizzard through your own client and are not part of AddonStudio.