silverbullet/website/🔌 Plugs.md

Silver Bullet at its core is bare bones in terms of functionality, most of its power it gains from **plugs**.

Plugs are an extension mechanism (implemented using a library called `plugos` that runs plug code on the server in a sandboxed v8 Deno web worker, and in the browser using web workers). Plugs can hook into SB in various ways: plugs can extend the Markdown parser and its syntax, define new commands and keybindings, respond to various events triggered either on the server or client side, as well as run recurring and background tasks. Plugs can even define their own extension
mechanisms through custom events. Each plug runs in its own sandboxed
environment and communicates with SB via _syscalls_ that expose a vast range of functionality. Plugs can be loaded, unloaded and updated without having to restart SB itself.

## Directory
<!-- #query page where type = "plug" order by name render [[template/plug]] -->
* [[🔌 Backlinks]] by **Guillermo Vayá** ([repo](https://github.com/Willyfrog/silverbullet-backlinks))
* [[🔌 Core]] by **Silver Bullet Authors** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet))
* [[🔌 Directive]] by **Silver Bullet Authors** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet))
* [[🔌 Ghost]] by **Zef Hemel** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet-ghost))
* [[🔌 Git]] by **Zef Hemel** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet-github))
* [[🔌 Github]] by **Zef Hemel** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet-github))
* [[🔌 Mattermost]] by **Zef Hemel** ([repo](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet-mattermost))
* [[🔌 Serendipity]] by **Pantelis Vratsalis** ([repo](https://github.com/m1lt0n/silverbullet-serendipity))
<!-- /query -->

## How to develop your own plug
The easiest way to get started is to click the “Use this template” on the [silverbullet-plug-template](https://github.com/silverbulletmd/silverbullet-plug-template) repo.

Generally, every plug consists of a YAML manifest file named
`yourplugname.plug.yml`. This file defines all functions that form your plug. To be loadable by Silver Bullet (or any plugos-based system for that matter), it needs to be compiled into a JSON bundle (ending with `.plug.json`).

Generally, the way to do this is to run `silverbullet plug:compile` as follows:

    silverbullet plug:compile yourplugname.plug.yaml

However, if you use the plug template, this command is wrapped in your `deno.jsonc` file, so you can just run either:

    deno task build

to build it once, or

    deno task watch

to build it and rebuild when files are changed.

This will write out a `yourplugname.plug.json` file into the same folder.

Once you have a compiled `.plug.json` file you can load it into SB in a few ways by listing it in your space’s `PLUGS` page.

For development it’s easiest to use the `file:` prefix for this, by adding this in the `yaml` block section there to your existing list of plugs:

    - file:/home/me/git/yourplugname/yourplugname.plug.json

Reload your list of plugs via the `Plugs: Update` command (`Cmd-Shift-p` on Mac, `Ctrl-Shift-p` on Linux and Windows) to load the list of plugs from the various sources on the server and your browser client. No need to reload the page, your plugs are now active.

Once you’re happy with your plug, you can distribute it in various ways:

- You can put it on github by simply committing the resulting `.plug.json` file there and instructing users to point to by adding
  `- github:yourgithubuser/yourrepo/yourplugname.plug.json` to their `PLUGS` file
- Add a release in your github repo and instruct users to add the release as `- ghr:yourgithubuser/yourrepo` or if they need a spcecific release `- ghr:yourgithubuser/yourrepo/release-name`
- You can put it on any other web server, and tell people to load it via https, e.g. `- https://mydomain.com/mypugname.plug.json`.

### Recommended development workflow
I develop plugs as follows: in one terminal I have `deno task watch` running at all times, constantly recompiling my code as I change it.

I also have SB open with a `file:` based link in my `PLUGS` file.

Whenever I want to test a change, I switch to SB, hit `Cmd-Shift-p` and test if stuff works.

Often I also have the `Debug: Show Logs` command running to monitor both server and client logs for any errors and debug information.