*some* way to handle dependencies in plugins would be nice

[jakob1379]

The current state of dependency management in the plugin ecosystem feels a bit like the wild west. If someone wants to use a specific plugin, they’re left hoping they can track down the correct dependencies—let alone the exact versions required.

Are there any plans to introduce a minimum specification or a standardized system for building plugins with their dependencies included?

One possible approach could be to use something like Nix. It would allow plugins to be packaged in a reproducible way across systems, bundling all required dependencies via the local package manager. This doesn’t have to place a burden on plugin authors either—you could provide a strict template where dependencies are declared in a simple file (e.g., a text or config file), without requiring users to learn Nix or any other build system in depth.

This could make plugin installation far more reliable and reduce friction for both developers and users.

[spiros132]

Most plugins as far as I know already contain what their dependencies are, in the README.md file. You could ask on discord or on the noctalia-shell repository if that would be a good idea to implement :)

[jakob1379]

I would suggest the simplest appraoch, let the user/community supply the name of the packages for a given package-manager, in your case with aur/cachyOS that would possibly require a note on adding the right repo for the packages, and then initially not care too much about versions - most plugins should work without too much fuss. Though some lockfile for versions would be great!

[spiros132]

Interesting idea, do you have any idea or suggestion of how to implement it? What kind of format / how would it look like?

[jakob1379]

A schema resulting in the following in the manifest.json:

{
....
  "dependencies": {
    "apt": ["python3", "ffmpeg"],
    "pacman": ["python", "ffmpeg"],
    "dnf": ["python3", "ffmpeg"],
    "nix": ["python3", "ffmpeg"]
  }
}

with the schema enabling auto completion in IDEs

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "$id": "https://noctalia.dev/schemas/plugin-manifest.schema.json",
  "title": "Noctalia Plugin Manifest",
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": true,
  "properties": {
    "dependencies": {
      "type": "object",
      "description": "Dependencies grouped by package manager (apt, pacman, nix, etc.)",
      "additionalProperties": {
        "type": "array",
        "description": "List of package names for this package manager",
        "items": {
          "type": "string",
          "minLength": 1
        },
        "uniqueItems": true
      }
    }
  }
}

This should be plenty to interpolate strings to a copy paste section for the various package-managers.

[spiros132]

We already have a schema for the manifest in the root folder which we could change to add this. The only problem is the implementation in the shell itself. Since v5 is coming out soon I'm wondering if it's better to implement it there instead of in the v4.

[jakob1379]

I think postponing any implementation is better than rushing this into 4,