Much has been said and created with respect to DNN extension development. Let me give you yet another perspective. Why not let MsBuild create the DNN manifest for you! Get a glace of an Open Source GitHub project that reads your extensions assembly and project file to determine what the DNN manifest and the install package should contain and the manifest is created on the fly. Stop writing XML and start decorating your code to put behavior all in one place – in your source code! Never forget to include a dependent assembly – its added automatically! And of course the DNN install package is created for you just as well, including only the resources actually referenced in the project file. See just how easy it works.