Deprecation & Team Curation

Extension deprecation follows a lifecycle: the extension author marks a version as deprecated in the Gallery, update checks surface a deprecation warning, and eventually the extension is delisted. For extensions you maintain internally, the same lifecycle applies — communicate deprecation in advance, provide a migration path, and set a removal date. The worst deprecation pattern is silent removal: an extension disappears from settings.json and sessions silently lose capabilities without warning.

Team curation is the ongoing practice of maintaining a healthy extension ecosystem. Quarterly reviews should answer: which extensions are actively used? Which are installed but never called? Which have unpatched security issues? Which have been abandoned by their maintainers? The curation process mirrors dependency management in software projects — unused extensions are removed, outdated ones are updated or replaced, and new additions go through a review process.

# Audit installed extensions
gemini extensions list --verbose    # show versions and last-used dates
gemini extensions list --outdated   # check for updates

# Remove unused extensions
gemini extensions remove extension-name

# Team curation checklist (quarterly)
# 1. List all installed extensions across team members
# 2. Cross-reference with /tools usage from session logs
# 3. Remove extensions with zero usage in the past quarter
# 4. Update all remaining extensions and test
# 5. Review permissions of all extensions against current security policy
# 6. Document approved extensions in shared settings.json

1. Schedule quarterly reviews Set a calendar reminder to audit extensions every quarter. Review usage, check for updates and deprecations, remove unused extensions, and update the team's approved list.
2. Track usage metrics Use /tools output and session logs to identify which extensions are actually being called. Extensions installed "just in case" that never get used are pure overhead.
3. Communicate deprecations early When deprecating an internal extension, give the team at least two sprints of warning. Provide a migration guide — what replaces the deprecated extension, how to update settings.json, and what workflow changes are needed.