Greasy Fork

Could you please add the @updateURL / @downloadURL metadata so the script updates automatically or the lack of them is a deliberate choice that I'm just not aware about?

Hey, I think there might be a slight misunderstanding of how the @updateURL and @downloadURL metadata works on Greasy Fork.

For standard scripts, Greasy Fork dynamically generates these URLs upon installation even if the author omits them. However, for library scripts (such as this one), URL-dependent static versioning is both typical and enforced.

This is done for two main reasons:

1. Stability: Library scripts can, and often do, break compatibility between versions. Allowing a library to auto-update would likely break the behavior of all downstream consumer scripts relying on the older syntax.

2. Security: It prevents a malicious actor from silently pushing malicious code to consumer scripts. By forcing static URLs, any change requires a new version number and a transparent review.

An example of this would be how Greasy Fork instructs usage of library scripts.

This script should not be not be installed directly. It is a library for other scripts to include with the meta directive // @require https://update.greatest.deepsurf.us/scripts/549881/1698944/YouTube%20Helper%20API.js

See how this uses an update url (update.greatest.deepsurf.us) directly with "1698944" as the version control number? Put simply, the version is baked into the @require link effectively locking it, and your idea of auto-updating libraries is considered dangerous and bad practice.

While writing my message, I began to think that those could be some of the reasons, but I wasn't sure.

Thank you for your detailed response. Now I know :)