1. A method executed on a computing device for managing a web extension through a manifest file, the method comprising: retrieving attributes of the web extension by accessing metadata of the web extension, wherein the metadata includes the attributes; identifying a host application as one of the attributes and identifying a versioning as one of the attributes; identifying a version number of the web extension in the versioning attribute, wherein the version number includes a first version of the host application and a second version of the host application; generating a pointer pointing to the web extension as an additional attribute; storing the attributes in the manifest file formatted in a standardized format; and managing at least one of: a consumption, an activation, and a presentation of the web extension based on the manifest file, wherein the manifest file includes version override elements that enable a developer to specify settings of the second version of the host application to apply in the first version of the host application by referencing a schema for the first version and defining the settings of the second version in the version override elements.