Maintain Dynamic Plugins

Companion Guidance

Use karpathy-guidelines, validate-change, maintain-packaging, and contribute-docs alongside this skill when implementation, packaging, CI, or documentation changes are involved.

Use this skill for plugin.kind = "rust_dynamic", plugin.kind = "worker", nemo-relay-plugin, nemo-relay-worker, nemo-relay-worker-proto, nemo-relay-types, and the Python nemo-relay-plugin package.

Rules

• Keep the stable boundary explicit: native plugins cross a C ABI; worker

plugins cross grpc-v1.

• Do not pass Rust runtime types, trait objects, futures, or allocator-owned

strings across the native dynamic-library boundary.

• Typed native middleware futures run on the SDK-owned Tokio executor. Keep

subscribers synchronous and preserve raw synchronous ABI registrations.

• Define closed worker transport structures in protobuf when generated clients

must enforce their fields. Keep open application payloads lossless by using JsonValue or JsonEnvelope rather than google.protobuf.Value.

• Keep relay-plugin.toml dynamic records separate from generic runtime

components. Enabled dynamic records may synthesize internal component specs; disabled records stay inspectable but unloaded.

• Relay 0.8 establishes the native API 1 and grpc-v1 canonical

ToolExecutionResult baseline. Require every dynamic plugin to rebuild and declare a compat.relay range that excludes versions before 0.8. Recommend >=0.8.0,<1.0; open-ended or narrower 0.8-or-newer ranges are valid.

• Treat compat.relay as the plugin author's compatibility assertion, not

proof that an artifact was rebuilt. Do not add a legacy raw-result adapter.

• Relay 0.8 retains the grpc-v1 identifier and

nemo.relay.worker.v1 package while changing the tool-result protobuf types; every worker must regenerate its bindings and rebuild. Native ABI v4 permits append-only host-table extensions guarded by structsize; existing fields must remain frozen at their original offsets. Incompatible native JSON, reordered or replaced native fields, or incompatible worker protobuf changes must bump nativeapi or worker_protocol.

• Do not add tests under src; Rust tests belong in crate tests/ trees and

Python SDK tests belong under python/tests.

• Native and worker plugins are trusted extensions. Document that native plugins

are in-process and unsandboxed; worker plugins provide process isolation but not a security sandbox.

Checklist

• Manifest validation covers kind, compatibility, load contract, integrity,

capability mismatch, and disabled-plugin behavior.

• Native loader keeps libraries alive until registered callbacks are cleared

and deregisters plugin kinds before unload.

• Worker activation covers process launch, token auth, handshake, validation,

declarative registration, proxy rollback, cancellation, and shutdown.

• Rust and Python SDKs expose every supported registration surface.
• Runtime helpers cover marks, scopes, continuations, and isolated scope

stacks.

• plugins list, plugins inspect, and plugins validate report lifecycle

and compatibility status without leaking secret config.

• Top-level doctor reports resolved dynamic plugin and host configuration

status.

• When detailed dynamic plugin guides exist, they keep Rust native, Python

worker, and grpc-v1 protocol details on separate pages.

• justfile, Codecov, and CI package/test workflows include new plugin

crates and packages.

Validation

just build-test-plugin-fixtures
cargo test -p nemo-relay-types
cargo test -p nemo-relay-plugin
cargo test -p nemo-relay-worker-proto
cargo test -p nemo-relay-worker
cargo test -p nemo-relay --features worker-grpc --test native_plugin_integration --test worker_plugin_integration
just test-python-plugin
just test-rust
just test-python
just docs

The canonical just test-rust, just test-python, and just test-go recipes prepare plugin fixtures automatically. Run just build-test-plugin-fixtures before raw focused native or worker plugin tests; fixture compilation must not happen inside an individual test case.

For broad runtime or public API changes, run the full validate-change matrix.

References

• crates/core/src/plugin/dynamic/
• crates/plugin
• crates/worker
• crates/worker-proto
• crates/types
• python/plugin
• examples/rust-native-plugin
• docs/build-plugins
• examples/python-grpc-worker-plugin