Plugins

What a plugin is

A plugin is a package with a plugin.json manifest. It declares tools (shaped like MCP tools), UI panels, settings, alerts, skills and events, and runs in one of two ways.

entry

A JavaScript module.

process

A program in any language that talks to the host over JSON-RPC on standard input and output. It runs only with the OS sandbox on and is not supported on Windows.

Plugins declare that they need host protocol 3. Installed plugins live in ~/.ave/plugins/<id>/, and registry.json decides which are active.

Installing

Install from the Marketplace tab or from a link. A link only opens a confirmation screen; nothing installs until you confirm.

ave://install/<kind>/<name>@<source>
ave://uninstall/<kind>/<name>@<source>
ave://marketplace/add?url=<repository>

For a plugin you are building, run an unpackaged build with AVE_DEV=1 and choose Settings → Extension Settings → Developer tools → Install from local folder.

Isolation and network

• Plugins run in their own processes outside the app, and inside the sandbox when it is on.
• The host rates the risk of every call, and a plugin cannot lower it.
• Network goes only to the domains declared in networkAccess.allowedDomains, sixteen at most. The host sends one hop at a time and checks every redirect.
• If one plugin fails to start, the others keep working, and calls to the failed one return the real reason.

Default plugins

Local indexer

Indexes your documents and merges keyword (BM25) and vector results by reciprocal rank fusion before they reach the conversation. Plugin data lives in ~/.ave/plugins/<id>/data.

Meeting

The host captures microphone and system audio and hands it over; the plugin runs the meeting, the transcript and the summary.

Alerts and suggestions

Plugin alerts arrive only if you turn them on, with cooldowns and rate limits, as cards or OS notifications. A plugin with the host:overlay capability can suggest a conversation, but it does not start until you accept it.