openclaw/src/plugins/AGENTS.md

Plugins Boundary

This directory owns plugin discovery, manifest validation, loading, registry assembly, and contract enforcement.

Public Contracts

• Docs:
  • docs/plugins/architecture.md
  • docs/plugins/manifest.md
  • docs/plugins/sdk-overview.md
  • docs/plugins/sdk-entrypoints.md
• Definition files:
  • src/plugins/types.ts
  • src/plugins/runtime/types.ts
  • src/plugins/contracts/registry.ts
  • src/plugins/public-artifacts.ts

Boundary Rules

• Preserve manifest-first behavior: discovery, config validation, and setup should work from metadata before plugin runtime executes.
• Keep loader behavior aligned with the documented Plugin SDK and manifest contracts. Do not create private backdoors that bundled plugins can use but external plugins cannot.
• If a loader or registry change affects plugin authors, update the public SDK, docs, and contract tests instead of relying on incidental internals.
• Do not normalize "plugin-owned" into "core-owned" by scattering direct reads of plugins.entries.<id>.config through unrelated core paths. Prefer generic helpers, plugin runtime hooks, manifest metadata, and explicit auto-enable wiring.
• When plugin-owned tools or provider fallbacks need core participation, keep the contract generic and honor plugin disablement plus SecretRef semantics.
• Keep contract loading and contract tests on the dedicated bundled registry path. Do not make contract validation depend on activating providers through unrelated production resolution flows.