Plugin API Reference

The field-by-field reference for aoe-plugin.toml, the manifest every Agent of Empires plugin ships. The schema lives in the aoe-plugin-api crate (PluginManifest) and is the source of truth; this page documents it for plugin authors. The host parses the manifest strictly (unknown keys are rejected), so every key here maps to a schema field.

For a guided introduction see Writing Plugins. To scaffold a working plugin, use the starter template:

cookiecutter gh:agent-of-empires/plugin-template

Versioning

A manifest carries two independent version axes.

Key	Meaning
api_version	The manifest schema version. The current schema is 6. The host rejects a manifest whose api_version is newer than it supports. Bump it as you adopt newer sections (see below).
aoe_version	A semver requirement on the host app version, e.g. ">=1.11.0, <2.0.0". The host refuses to install, and skips loading, a plugin whose requirement excludes the running version. Optional; requires api_version >= 4.

Schema additions by api_version: 2 added contributions (commands, keybinds, settings, ui), 3 added the pane UI slot, 4 added status and aoe_version, 5 added screenshots, 6 added a command action.

Top-level fields

id = "dev.example.my-plugin"
name = "My Plugin"
version = "0.1.0"
api_version = 6
aoe_version = ">=1.11.0, <2.0.0"
description = "What the plugin does."
capabilities = ["runtime.worker"]

Key	Type	Required	Notes
id	string	yes	Plugin id (see Plugin id). Namespaces config, events, and action names.
name	string	yes	Human-readable display name.
version	string	yes	Semantic version of the plugin.
api_version	integer	yes	Manifest schema version, 1 to 6.
description	string	no	Shown in plugin listings. Defaults to empty.
aoe_version	string	no	Host-app semver requirement. Requires api_version >= 4.
capabilities	array of string	no	Runtime grants the worker needs (see Capabilities). Static contributions need none.
screenshots	array	no	Up to 8. Requires api_version >= 5. See Screenshots.
setting_defaults	table	no	Overrides for core host settings, keyed by canonical path (e.g. "theme.idle_decay_minutes"). Resolution is user value, then plugin override, then core default.

Plugin id

A dotted, lowercase ASCII identifier such as dev.example.review-helper. Each dot-separated segment starts with a lowercase letter and may contain digits and hyphens; the whole id is at most 64 bytes. The aoe.* and agent-of-empires.* namespaces are reserved for bundled and officially featured plugins; a community install cannot claim them.

Capabilities

Capabilities gate runtime resource access. They are prompted once at install and pinned to the manifest hash; an update that widens them must be re-approved. Declare only what the worker uses. Static contributions (commands, keybinds, themes, ui, status) need no capability.

Capability	Grants
runtime.worker	Running any plugin code at all (host RPCs the worker initiates). Any worker needs this.
session.read	Reading the attached session.
session.write	Mutating the attached session.
config.read	Reading host or other-plugin configuration (not the plugin’s own settings).
config.write	Writing host or other-plugin configuration.
process.spawn	Spawning processes beyond the plugin’s own worker.
net	Outbound network access.
fs.read	Filesystem reads outside the plugin directory.
fs.write	Filesystem writes outside the plugin directory.
clipboard.read	Reading the clipboard.
clipboard.write	Writing the clipboard.
notifications	Posting desktop / TUI notifications.
browser_open	Opening a URL in the user’s browser from a command action.

A capability this host version does not recognize is rejected, not granted.

Commands

Palette and CLI entries, namespaced by the host as plugin.<id>.<command-id>.

[[commands]]
id = "status"
title = "My Plugin: status"
description = "Show the status summary."

Key	Type	Required	Notes
id	string	yes	Command id. Empty is unaddressable.
title	string	no	Display name.
description	string	no	Help text.
action	table	no	A client-executed action. Requires api_version >= 6 and the browser_open capability.

Command action

[commands.action]
kind = "open-ui-link"
slot = "row-badge"
id = "my_badge"

The only kind is open-ui-link: it opens the href from the plugin’s own (slot, id) UI-state entry in the browser, with no worker round-trip. The (slot, id) pair must match a declared [[ui]] entry on a per-session slot.

Keybinds

[[keybinds]]
command = "status"
key = "Ctrl+Shift+G"

Key	Type	Required	Notes
command	string	yes	Target command id (a plugin or core command).
key	string	yes	Key chord, e.g. Ctrl+Shift+G. Core bindings win a collision.

Settings

Plugin-declared settings, rendered on the TUI and web settings surfaces and stored under [plugins."<id>".settings]. The worker reads them via the config.get host RPC.

[[settings]]
key = "refresh_secs"
label = "Refresh interval (seconds)"
description = "How often the worker polls."
type = "integer"
default = 120
min = 0
max = 86400
advanced = true

Key	Type	Required	Notes
key	string	yes	Setting key, stored under the plugin’s settings table.
label	string	no	Display label.
description	string	no	Help text.
type	string	no	Value type (see below). Defaults to string.
options	array of string	no	Allowed values for select; ignored otherwise.
min / max	integer	no	Inclusive bounds for integer; ignored otherwise.
default	any	no	Declared default. Must match type. Absent means the type’s zero value.
advanced	bool	no	Group under the Advanced fold. Defaults to false.

Setting types:

type	Widget
string	Text input (default).
bool (or boolean)	Toggle.
integer	Number input, bounded by min / max.
select	Dropdown over a non-empty options array.

UI slots

Declares the host-rendered slots the worker pushes state into via the ui.state.set host RPC.

[[ui]]
slot = "pane"
id = "my_pane"

Key	Type	Required	Notes
slot	string	yes	One of the slot names below. Unknown slots are rejected.
id	string	no	Addressing id for (slot, id) state pushes. Required to be non-empty when a command action targets it.

Slot	Scope	Renders
status-bar	global	A segment in the dashboard status bar.
card	global	A card on the dashboard overview.
sort-key	global	A named sort option over a row-column value.
filter-facet	global	A named filter over a row-column value.
row-badge	per-session	A badge on the session row.
row-column	per-session	A text column on the session row.
detail-badge	per-session	A badge in the session detail view.
pane	per-session	A dockable tool-window pane (requires api_version >= 3).
notification	n/a	A transient notification pushed via ui.notify; gated by the notifications capability, not a slot declaration.

Status

Status segments the plugin contributes, consumed by the status surface. Requires api_version >= 4.

[[status]]
id = "pr_state"
label = "PR state"

Key	Type	Required	Notes
id	string	yes	Stable segment id.
label	string	no	Human-readable text.

Themes

[[themes]]
name = "My Theme"
path = "themes/my-theme.toml"

Key	Type	Required	Notes
name	string	yes	Theme name in the picker. Must not collide with a builtin.
path	string	yes	Theme TOML path, relative to the plugin directory.

Screenshots

Up to 8 marketplace screenshots, shown in the plugin detail view. Requires api_version >= 5.

[[screenshots]]
path = "assets/screenshots/overview.png"
alt = "The plugin's pane showing live status."
caption = "Live status in the pane."

Key	Type	Required	Notes
path	string	yes	Repository-relative image path. No URL scheme, no leading separator, no ..; must be PNG, JPEG, GIF, or WebP.
alt	string	yes	Accessible description; non-empty.
caption	string	no	Caption shown beneath the image.

Runtime

The worker the host spawns and supervises. Omit it for a static, metadata-only plugin. Two kinds.

Command

The host runs the build steps at install or update, then launches command.

[runtime]
kind = "command"
command = [".aoe-build/venv/bin/my-plugin-worker"]

[[runtime.build]]
command = ["python3", "-m", "venv", ".aoe-build/venv"]
platforms = ["linux", "macos"]

Key	Type	Required	Notes
command	array of string	yes	argv. Plugin-relative by default (must contain a path separator, never absolute) so the daemon’s PATH never decides whether the worker launches. With system = true it must instead be a bare program name resolved on PATH.
system	bool	no	Resolve command[0] on the host PATH (for genuine system tools only). Defaults to false.
build	array	no	Ordered build steps, run once at install or update inside the plugin directory, in the user’s interactive shell.

Build into .aoe-build/ (the host’s build-output directory); the host excludes it from the plugin tree hash, so a venv, node_modules, or target/ there does not break integrity verification.

Build step

Key	Type	Required	Notes
command	array of string	yes	argv, same resolution policy as the launch command.
platforms	array of string	no	Restrict to OS names: linux, macos, windows. Empty runs on all.

Release binary

The host downloads a release asset instead of building from source.

[runtime]
kind = "release-binary"
asset = "my-plugin-${target}.tar.gz"
bin = "my-plugin-worker"

Key	Type	Required	Notes
asset	string	yes	Asset-name template; ${os}, ${arch}, ${target} are substituted before matching the release.
bin	string	no	Executable path inside the extracted archive. Omit to run the downloaded asset directly (a raw, non-archive binary).