TX-5DR Plugins

Official external plugin repository for TX-5DR.

Purpose

• Keep non-builtin plugins out of the main application repository
• Publish an official marketplace catalog from a single source of truth
• Distribute packaged plugin ZIP assets through OSS only

Repository Layout

Each published plugin lives in a dedicated top-level directory:

tx-5dr-plugins/
  plugin-a/
  plugin-b/
  .github/

Private shared source packages may live below shared/ without a tx5drPlugin metadata block; the root scripts ignore them. A plugin only needs to keep its own source, metadata, build script, and packaging logic inside its folder.

Plugin Contract

Each plugin directory is self-contained. CI scans top-level directories and treats only directories containing a tx5drPlugin metadata block as published plugins.

Each plugin must expose a uniform contract to CI:

• scripts.build: prepares all build outputs needed for release packaging
• tx5drPlugin.pluginName: runtime plugin directory name
• tx5drPlugin.entry: built entry module path used for validation
• tx5drPlugin.include: files or directories copied into the released ZIP
• tx5drPlugin.minPluginApiVersion: oldest bundled @tx5dr/plugin-api version that supports the plugin; it is unrelated to the TX-5DR nightly product version

package-lock.json is optional. If present, CI uses npm ci; otherwise it falls back to npm install.

Example:

{
  "scripts": {
    "build": "tsc"
  },
  "tx5drPlugin": {
    "pluginName": "example-plugin",
    "title": "Example Plugin",
    "description": "Example description",
    "minPluginApiVersion": "1.0.0",
    "entry": "dist/index.js",
    "include": [
      { "from": "dist/index.js", "to": "index.js" },
      { "from": "src/locales", "to": "locales" }
    ]
  }
}

This keeps plugin-specific build logic inside the plugin while letting CI use a single packaging and publishing path. Adding a new plugin does not require editing any root package manifest.

Release Channels

• nightly: built automatically from main
• stable: promoted after review

Distribution

• Marketplace catalog JSON and ZIP assets are uploaded to OSS
• Distribution base URL: https://dl.tx5dr.com/plugins/market
• GitHub Releases are not used for plugin distribution
• TX-5DR clients read the official marketplace catalog from a fixed URL

Current Status

Repository scaffold with migrated demo plugins and the external FT contest family:

• heartbeat-demo
• iframe-panel-demo
• qso-session-inspector
• 13 standard FT8/FT4 contest plugins
• ww-digi

Root tooling is just plain Node scripts under scripts/:

• node scripts/validate-marketplace.mjs
• node scripts/build-plugins.mjs
• node scripts/package-market.mjs --channel nightly

Local Host Development

The contest packages are developed against the Host worktree without copying their source into the Host repository. Set TX5DR_HOST_ROOT to the exact Host worktree that is under test; the local build then links the public API and build tools from that worktree and skips npm installation:

TX5DR_HOST_ROOT=/Users/fangyizhou/Documents/coding/tx-5dr-ft8-contest-family-plugins \
  node scripts/build-plugins.mjs

To make the Host discover those built artifacts, create ignored development links in the Host worktree:

TX5DR_PLUGINS_ROOT=/Users/fangyizhou/Documents/coding/tx-5dr-plugins \
  node /Users/fangyizhou/Documents/coding/tx-5dr-ft8-contest-family-plugins/scripts/link-marketplace-plugins.mjs

Run the Host with TX5DR_PLUGINS_DIR pointing at <host-worktree>/.dev/plugins, then rescan plugins. The links point to each plugin's dist directory and are never included in Git or release artifacts.