The SDK and scaffold are currently available from the source repository; npm publication is deferred. Registry installation commands below describe the planned release. Use the source workflow in the first-plugin guide for this preview.

What a GhostBoard plugin is

High-trust JavaScript that you install and enable explicitly, with a host-provided SDK for notes, canvas, files and panels.

GhostBoard is a local-first spatial canvas for notes and research material. A plugin extends it with ordinary JavaScript that runs inside the app’s renderer with the same trust as the app itself. There is no sandbox, permission prompt list or marketplace review: you decide which plugins to install, and you enable each one per workspace after reading a high-trust notice.

What a plugin can contribute

Contribution	What the user sees	Template
Command	An entry in the plugin menu with an optional shortcut	default
Panel	A side view rendered with DOM or with the host’s shared React	default, `--react`
Custom canvas type	A new kind of card that persists its own state, migrates data and is searchable	`--combined`
Importer	A host-owned “select file → map fields → preview → confirm” workflow that creates Notes	`--importer`, `--combined`

Every plugin can also read and update Notes in revision-checked transactions, subscribe to content and selection changes, keep JSON key-value storage per app or per workspace, schedule tasks while the workspace is active, and read or write user-selected files and directories through the host.

What the host provides

The runtime for @ghostboard/sdk, @ghostboard/sdk/react, react, react-dom, react-dom/client and react/jsx-runtime through an import map. A no-build plugin is a manifest.json plus JavaScript files; nothing is installed or compiled on the user’s machine.
Public theme variables (--gb-*) so your UI matches light and dark mode without importing host components.
Automatic reload of a connected development directory, with failed reloads leaving the previous version running.
Deterministic packaging, Ed25519 author signing, pinned update sources, code rollback, data-migration backups and a startup safe mode.

What you need

GhostBoard 1.0.0 or later on macOS (Apple Silicon has packaged evidence; Intel is pending verification). Windows and Linux do not support plugins yet. See Supported platforms and limits.
Bun 1.2+ for the author tooling: bunx create-ghostboard-plugin, author tests and bun run package. Node 20+ works for scaffolding; the generated scripts assume Bun.
Basic web knowledge. React is optional; the default templates are plain JavaScript.

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