Release a plugin

Once your plugin works on your machine, the next step is getting it to other people and keeping their copy up to date. Syntic Code has no central plugin store: you share a plugin through a marketplace you control, or hand people the plugin directly.

Choose how to share

A marketplace is the only way that gives people install, update, dependencies and the /plugin manager, so it is the right choice for almost everything you intend to keep.

Prepare the plugin

Before each release:

1. Set the version. Raise version in plugin.json. Semantic versioning (1.4.0 → 1.4.1 for fixes, 1.5.0 for new features, 2.0.0 for changes that break existing use) helps people judge an update.
2. Fill in the metadata. description, author, homepage, repository and license help people decide whether to trust the plugin.
3. Validate it. syntic plugin validate <folder> should report no errors. Fix the warnings too; they usually point at a typo.
4. Run your evals. syntic plugin eval <folder> should pass. See Test a plugin.
5. Check the cost. syntic plugin details (after a local install) or /usage → Plugins shows how many tokens your skills add to every request. See Measure a plugin.
6. Keep secrets out. Never commit tokens. Declare an option with "sensitive": true instead, and let each user set it.

Publish through your own marketplace

{
  "name": "acme",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "release-helper",
      "description": "Release chores: version bumps, changelog, tags",
      "source": "acme/tools//plugins/release-helper",
      "category": "release"
    }
  ]
}

syntic plugin marketplace add acme/tools
syntic plugin install release-helper@acme

Control who can install

Access follows the marketplace’s source. A private git repository is reachable only by people whose git credentials can clone it. Host a marketplace covers private hosting, SSH cloning and catalogs behind a login.

Tag a release

syntic plugin tag creates an annotated git tag named after the plugin and its version:

cd plugins/release-helper
syntic plugin tag --dry-run
# Would create tag `release-helper--v1.5.0`.
syntic plugin tag
# Created tag `release-helper--v1.5.0`. Push it with `git push origin release-helper--v1.5.0`.
git push origin release-helper--v1.5.0

The <name>--v<version> form keeps tags for different plugins in one repository apart.

Ship updates

How an update reaches people depends on what the catalog entry points at:

Pinning to tags is the safer habit: nothing reaches users until you change the catalog.

Users see new versions after their marketplace listing refreshes. That happens once a day in the background, or right away with syntic plugin marketplace refresh. Installing always refreshes the listing first. Installed copies change only when the user runs syntic plugin update (or presses r in /plugin), and the plugin’s on/off state is kept.

Rename or retire a plugin

• Renaming a plugin is, for users, a new plugin. Publish it under the new name, keep the old entry for a while with a description that points to the new one, then remove it.
• Removing an entry from the catalog does not uninstall anything. When a user’s listing refreshes, the output flags it: flagged: `old-plugin@acme` is installed but no longer published by `acme` (delisted). They decide whether to uninstall.
• Renaming the marketplace (changing name in marketplace.json) is followed automatically: on refresh, the saved marketplace takes the new name and installed plugins move with it.

Share without a marketplace

For a quick share, zip the plugin folder (with the manifest at the top of the archive or inside a single folder) and host it over HTTPS:

syntic --plugin-url https://downloads.example.com/release-helper-1.5.0.zip

The download is cached per URL. If a later download fails, the last good copy is used with a warning. Plain http:// is accepted only for the local machine. Nothing is installed: the plugin is active only for that run.

Declare dependencies

When your plugin builds on another one, list it in dependencies and keep both in the same marketplace, so they install together. See Dependencies.

Related pages

• Create a marketplace
• Marketplace reference
• Plugin commands