plugkit

README

PlugKit

PlugKit to stupidly simple, stream-capable plugin runtime for Go.
No gRPC. No protobuf. No codegen.
Just structs, CBOR, pipes and a handshake.

✨ Why PlugKit?

PlugKit is a micro-framework that lets you:

• create and run plugins as separate processes (we call them simply plugs)
• communicate with them over stdin/stdout
• pass arbitrary Go structs encoded with CBOR
• use bidirectional message routing
• gracefully terminate a plug whenever you want (Finish)

It's like HashiCorp’s go-plugin, but:

• without the pain
• without reflection
• without type registries
• with streaming message support 😎 (in future)

🧪 Status

PlugKit is under active development.
The API will evolve slightly, but the core already works:

• ✅ Running plugins as separate processes
• ✅ Bidirectional communication (host <-> plugin)
• ✅ CBOR serialization (fxamacker/cbor)
• ✅ Handling multiple message types
• ✅ Finish() with exit code support
• ⏳ Handshake with capabilities negotiation
• ⏳ Unit tests
• ⏳ API documentation

Documentation

Index

• func CreateAndRunPlug(handlers *[]options.CommandHandler) error
• func NewPlug() *plug.SmartPlug

Functions

func CreateAndRunPlug

func CreateAndRunPlug(handlers *[]options.CommandHandler) error

CreateAndRunPlug builds and runs a SmartPlug instance using the provided list of handlers.

It is designed for functional-style plugin declarations, where a slice of message-command handlers is passed in and automatically registered.

The function will block until the SmartPlug finishes execution and return any error reported during its lifecycle.

func NewPlug

func NewPlug() *plug.SmartPlug

NewPlug returns a new, empty SmartPlug instance.

This is a shortcut for plug.New(), useful for clarity or abstraction when exposing PlugKit in higher-level packages.