got it to work

extension-playwright/vite.sw.config.mts

@@ -14,10 +14,29 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import { resolve } from 'path';
+import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
+import { dirname, resolve } from 'path';
 import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
+import { viteStaticCopy } from 'vite-plugin-static-copy';
+
+const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+const __dirname = dirname(__filename);
 
 export default defineConfig({
+  plugins: [
+    viteStaticCopy({
+      targets: [
+        {
+          src: resolve(__dirname, 'icons/*'),
+          dest: 'icons'
+        },
+        {
+          src: resolve(__dirname, 'manifest.json'),
+          dest: '.'
+        }
+      ]
+    })
+  ],
   build: {
     lib: {
       entry: resolve(__dirname, 'src/background.ts'),