BOSS Plugin API

The SDK every BOSS plugin compiles against, and the bundled system plugin that serves it at runtime.

A plugin depends on this as compileOnly and never bundles it. The host owns the copy that is actually loaded, which is what keeps a plugin built against an older SDK working on a newer BOSS.

What it provides

• PluginContext - roughly fifty host providers covering git, filesystem, Supabase, auth, browser, LLM, clipboard, secrets, projects, tabs, notifications and cache. Every one of them is nullable. Null-check and degrade; never crash.
• The plugin-to-plugin API registry - registerPluginAPI(api) and getPluginAPI(apiClass). Both default to a no-op and null respectively, so a plugin calling them still loads on a host that predates them.
• The MCP extension point - McpToolProvider, McpToolDefinition, McpToolArgs, McpToolResult, and registerMcpToolProvider / unregisterMcpToolProvider. This module defines the contract; it contributes no tools itself.
• Panel and tab registration - PanelInfo, PanelId, Panel.left/right.top.bottom, PanelRegistry, TabRegistry.
• Shared UI - BossTheme, BossColors, BossDialog, BossOverlayHost, panel scrollbars and the Boss* component set, so a plugin's panel matches the host and re-skins with it.

Feature detection

BossApiRuntime.version and BossApiRuntime.isAtLeast(...) read the boss.api.version system property the host publishes at startup, so a plugin can check the SDK level at runtime instead of discovering it as a NoSuchMethodError.

It is deliberately a standalone object. New members on host-compiled types get shadowed by the host's older copy, while new types are served from this jar - so version detection has to live on a type the host does not also define.

Using it from a plugin

compileOnly(files("../boss-plugin-api/build/libs/boss-plugin-api-<version>.jar"))

The manifest declares sharedPackages: ["ai.rever.boss.plugin.api"], so the host classloader serves that package to every plugin and the host's copy always wins at runtime. Bundling this jar into a plugin will break it.

Build

./gradlew buildPluginJar    # build/libs/boss-plugin-api-*.jar

This plugin ships bundled with BossConsole and needs no manual installation. For local development:

cp build/libs/boss-plugin-api-*.jar \
   ~/Development/Boss/BossConsole/composeApp/build/bundled-plugins/

Notes

• System plugin: loadPriority: 0, so it loads before everything else, and canUnload: false.
• Updating it triggers a process-wide API-layer swap rather than an ordinary hot reload.
• The plugin class itself is intentionally a no-op. Providers are still supplied by the host's DefaultPlugin; this module's value is the API surface, not its register().

See AGENTS.md for architecture and conventions.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

Copyright 2025-2026 Risa Labs Inc.