Violentmonkey: Features, Setup, and Getting Started Guide

What it is

Violentmonkey is an open-source browser extension designed to provide userscript support across modern web browsers. In everyday web browsing, a userscript is a small script written in JavaScript that runs locally inside your browser to customize the look, behavior, or functionality of specific websites. By serving as an organized management system for these scripts, Violentmonkey allows individuals to tailor their web experience without having to create or package full browser extensions themselves.

The project is released as free and open-source software under the MIT license, with its complete source code hosted publicly on GitHub. Because it is engineered around standard WebExtensions APIs, Violentmonkey can run on any web browser that supports the WebExtensions architecture.

According to the official project documentation, Violentmonkey adheres to a lightweight and privacy-respecting design philosophy. The extension itself does not contain any advertisements and does not automatically alter or modify web pages on its own. Any visual adjustments, automation steps, or behavioral changes on a visited site are executed entirely by the specific userscripts that an individual actively chooses to install. Because scripts run directly within the context of web pages, the project documentation emphasizes security awareness, reminding users to install only scripts that they personally trust. In addition to current WebExtension releases, the project has also supported related historical implementations in the past, including releases for Opera Presto and Maxthon.

What it can do

Violentmonkey equips users with tools to organize, run, and synchronize userscripts to customize web pages and automate everyday tasks. Its core capabilities include:

• Web Page Customization and Automation: Users can run custom JavaScript routines on specific websites, enabling page modifications, workflow automation, and custom interface tweaks.
• Cross-Browser Cloud Synchronization: To make switching between computers and browsers frictionless, Violentmonkey can synchronize scripts and settings to external storage. It supports synchronization via Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or any service utilizing the WebDAV protocol. This enables users to keep their script setups unified across different web browsers.
• External Code Editor Communication: For script authors and developers who prefer working outside the browser, Violentmonkey provides the ability to communicate with external text and code editors. This allows creators to write and edit script files in their preferred desktop programming environments.
• Streamlined User Experience: The interface is built to keep things simple and direct, avoiding unnecessary complexity or burdensome decision-making for everyday script management.
• Manifest V3 Architecture: In line with evolving browser extension standards, the version of Violentmonkey distributed in the Chrome Web Store has been updated to Manifest V3. Earlier Manifest V2 packages and test editions continue to be maintained and accessible via project release channels.

How to get started

Getting started with Violentmonkey can be approached in three ways: standard installation from official extension marketplaces, downloading automated testing builds, or building the project locally from source code.

Standard Marketplace Installation

For everyday browsing, Violentmonkey can be added directly through the official addon repositories of supported browsers:

• Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers: Available through the Chrome Web Store.
• Mozilla Firefox: Available through Firefox Add-ons (AMO).
• Microsoft Edge: Available through Microsoft Edge Add-ons.

Users looking for specific versions, including beta releases or Manifest V2 builds, can also download packaged files directly through the project’s GitHub Releases page.

Automated Builds for Testers

For those who want to evaluate upcoming changes and code updates between official beta releases, automated continuous integration builds are produced. According to the project README:

• Builds can be accessed via CI workflows on GitHub (available to signed-in GitHub users).
• Builds can also be retrieved via nightly.link by replacing the domain in the artifact link.

Because interim test builds represent active development code that is likely to contain software bugs, the README advises users to perform an export of their settings inside Violentmonkey first as a backup. Once downloaded, these test archives can be loaded as unpacked extensions in Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, or installed as temporary extensions inside Mozilla Firefox.

Building from Source Code

Developers who want to inspect, compile, or contribute to Violentmonkey can set up the project locally. The prerequisites are Node.js and the PNPM package manager, with the project README noting that the installed Node.js version must match the "node" key defined in package.json.

To install dependencies and start the watch compilation process:

# Install dependencies
$ pnpm ci

# Watch and compile
$ pnpm dev

Once compiled, the unpacked extension can be loaded directly from the dist/ directory in the browser’s developer extension menu.

To run automated tests and linting across the repository:

$ pnpm run ci

To build production-ready packages for web stores or self-hosted distribution:

# Build for normal releases
$ pnpm build

# Build for self-hosted release that has an update_url
$ pnpm build:selfHosted

For more details on releasing updates, developers can refer to the repository’s RELEASE.md document.

Pricing and requirements

Pricing and plans are subject to the official page. Violentmonkey is published as open-source software distributed under the permissive MIT license.

To run the extension, users require a web browser that supports standard WebExtensions APIs, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or compatible Chromium variants.

For developers seeking to compile the code locally, system requirements include an installation of Node.js matching the version in package.json and the PNPM package manager. Users who wish to download automated CI test builds directly through GitHub Actions must have an active, signed-in GitHub account, or access the packages via nightly.link.

Who it is for

Violentmonkey is designed for several audiences:

• Web Power Users: Everyday internet users who want to modify website layouts, adjust visual styles, or automate repetitive web-based tasks by running custom userscripts.
• Script Creators and Developers: Programmers who write custom browser enhancements and want convenient integration with their external desktop text editors alongside support for modern extension standards like Manifest V3.
• Cross-Platform and Multi-Browser Users: People who work across multiple operating systems and browsers and need their userscript collection automatically kept in sync using Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or WebDAV.
• Open-Source Contributors: Developers, translators, technical writers, and testers interested in contributing to the project on GitHub, translating the interface, improving documentation, writing articles, or joining discussions on the project’s Discord server.

Alternatives

• Tampermonkey is an alternative userscript manager available for web browsers.
• Greasemonkey is another userscript manager designed for web browsers.

Sources

• https://github.com/violentmonkey/violentmonkey
• https://violentmonkey.github.io/
• https://www.tampermonkey.net/
• https://github.com/greasemonkey/greasemonkey