Elementor V3 widget development

Build companion-plugin widgets on Elementor's established Widget_Base / Controls_Stack architecture. Treat V3 here as the classic editor/widget model, not as an installed Elementor 3.x version: this API remains available and is used by core widgets in Elementor 4.2.3.

Do not mix this model with Atomic Widgets / Editor V4. Atomic widgets extend classes under Elementor\Modules\AtomicWidgets, declare prop types and styles differently, and remain a moving surface. Never translate a V3 control array into an Atomic schema by guesswork.

When to use this skill

• Create or review a class extending \Elementor\Widget_Base.
• Register widgets, categories, scripts, or styles from an Elementor addon.
• Implement register_controls(), render(), content_template(), or render_plain_content().
• Add widget frontend JavaScript through frontend/element_ready/{widget-name}.default.
• Decide whether is_dynamic_content() may return false.
• Diagnose a widget visible in PHP but missing/broken in the editor or frontend.
• Migrate _register_controls() or elementor/widgets/widgets_registered to current APIs.

For a complete companion-plugin skeleton and test matrix, read references/widget-contract-and-example.md. Load elementor-v3-widget-controls as well when designing or reviewing the control schema.

Architecture boundary