venpm

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Scaffolding ​

The venpm create command scaffolds plugin repos and individual plugins with the right structure for venpm publishing.

Create a Plugin Repo ​

bash
venpm create ~/src/my-plugins

This creates:

my-plugins/
  plugins.json                   # Empty venpm plugin index
  plugins/                       # Directory for your plugins
  README.md                      # Basic readme
  .github/
    workflows/
      validate.yml               # CI: validate plugins.json on push

The plugins.json starts with the schema reference and your repo name (derived from the directory name):

json
{
  "$schema": "https://venpm.dev/schemas/v1/plugins.json",
  "name": "my-plugins",
  "description": "",
  "plugins": {}
}

Create a Plugin ​

Inside an existing repo (one that has a plugins.json ancestor), create scaffolds a plugin instead:

bash
venpm create plugins/myPlugin             # plain TypeScript
venpm create plugins/myPlugin --tsx       # React support (.tsx entry)
venpm create plugins/myPlugin --css       # include style.css
venpm create plugins/myPlugin --native    # include native.ts (Node.js)

Flags can be combined:

bash
venpm create plugins/myPlugin --tsx --css --native

Generated Files ​

Plain TypeScript (venpm create plugins/myPlugin):

plugins/myPlugin/
  index.ts
typescript
import definePlugin from "@utils/types";

export default definePlugin({
    name: "MyPlugin",
    description: "",
    authors: [{ name: "YourName", id: 0n }],

    start() {},
    stop() {},
});

With React (--tsx): Creates index.tsx instead of index.ts.

With styles (--css): Adds style.css and an import in the entry file.

With native (--native): Adds native.ts for Node.js code (filesystem, child process, etc.) that runs in Electron's main process.

How venpm Detects Mode ​

venpm create <path> walks up the directory tree from <path> looking for a plugins.json with the venpm schema ($schema containing venpm). If found, it scaffolds a plugin. If not found, it scaffolds a repo.

This means you can create plugins from anywhere inside the repo:

bash
cd ~/src/my-plugins
venpm create plugins/newPlugin          # works — finds plugins.json in parent

After Scaffolding ​

  1. Edit the generated index.ts / index.tsx with your plugin logic
  2. Add an entry to plugins.json (see Plugin Index Format)
  3. Install locally for development: venpm install myPlugin --local plugins/myPlugin --no-build
  4. Build and test: venpm rebuild
  5. Validate: venpm validate plugins.json