Files
DriverVault/API Server/internal/plugins/README.md
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tajniak81andClaude Opus 5 9bd5c523c4 Plugins: the global layer moves into the database, beside the other two
The integration cascade stored its top layer differently from the two below
it: org (L2) and user (L3) plugin config lived in PocketBase, in a
pluginSettings field, while the global (L1) layer sat in a plugins.json
next to the binary. That split was accretion rather than design - the file
was the whole store in the v1 MVP, and the per-tenant layers were later
built on PocketBase and layered on top of it instead of replacing it.

It also cost something real. plugins.json was a second state store with
different durability from pb_data: its own volume, its own ownership, its
own backup. Losing pb_data is unmissable; losing api_data was silent, which
is how "every plugin comes back disabled after a redeploy" happened.

L1 now lives in the app_settings collection - one record keyed "global",
holding its settings in a pluginSettings field, the same mechanism and the
same field name the layers below use. The documents still differ in shape,
because only L1 carries enable state and the registration of external
plugins, but the storage is no longer a special case.

The Manager grows a Store seam (PocketBase in production, file for the
import, memory for tests) and, more importantly, a loaded gate. Settings in
a database mean the store can be unreachable at boot - a cold stack, or a
service account still to be set from the panel. That must not read as "no
plugins configured", or the first save would write emptiness over real
settings. So until a read succeeds the Manager stays unloaded, every
mutation is refused, /api/admin/plugins* answers 503, and a background
retry backs off to two minutes. The same gate covers a document that will
not parse: it is never replaced by one built from an empty map, which is a
stronger guarantee than the .corrupt backup it replaces.

Writing to a store also revealed a hole in the previous fix. Classifying a
save failure as errPersist was left to each Store, and a store that
returned a plain error would fall through to the "saved, but the plugin
failed to start" branch and be reported as a 200 - the same silent-success
bug through a different door. The Manager now classifies, whatever the
Store returns; a test pins it.

Upgrades are automatic: on the first boot that finds no settings in the
database, an existing plugins.json is imported and renamed to
plugins.json.migrated. The import is refused if the store is merely
unreachable, or if the file does not parse, so a stale or broken file can
never overwrite live settings. /data is still needed - the panel rewrites
.env there when it retargets PocketBase - but plugin settings no longer
depend on it.

21 tests in internal/plugins cover both stores, including the production
path against a fake PocketBase: create-then-update of the singleton,
round-trip across a restart, an outage that leaves settings intact, a
missing collection reading as not-ready rather than empty, and the import
running exactly once. go build, go vet and go test ./... pass. Schema
changes are mirrored into scripts/setup-pocketbase.mjs as that file
requires. Not verified: no Docker CLI here, so no image was built and the
bootstrap of app_settings against a real PocketBase is untested outside the
fake.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-21 16:52:47 +02:00

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Markdown

# Building DriverVault Plugins
A **plugin** integrates an external third-party service (vehicle data, parts
catalogs, notifications, file storage, …) behind one uniform contract. There are
two kinds:
| Kind | Written as | Added by | Rebuild? | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **built-in** | Go code in this repo | a rebuild | yes | first-party, high-trust, type-safe connectors |
| **external** | any HTTP service | registering a URL at runtime | **no** | third-party / less-trusted / independently deployed |
Both implement the same behaviour; the server treats them identically. Enable
state and per-plugin config persist to PocketBase and load on boot. Every plugin
is managed by a **superadmin** from the panel (`/`) or the `/api/admin/plugins*`
API.
---
## The contract
All plugins satisfy the Go interface in [`plugin.go`](plugin.go):
```go
type Plugin interface {
Descriptor() Descriptor
Init(ctx context.Context, config map[string]string) error
HealthCheck(ctx context.Context) Health
Invoke(ctx context.Context, action string, params json.RawMessage) (json.RawMessage, error)
Shutdown(ctx context.Context) error
}
```
- **`Descriptor`** — static metadata (name, provider, version, capabilities,
auth type, config fields). Drives the panel UI.
- **`Init`** — called with the resolved config (secrets included) whenever the
plugin is enabled or its config changes. Prepare clients/tokens here.
- **`HealthCheck`** — probe the upstream and classify: `Health{Status, LatencyMs, Detail}`
where `Status` is `StatusOK` / `StatusDegraded` / `StatusDown`.
- **`Invoke`** — run a named capability. There is no *generic* invoke endpoint yet,
but this is live: the integration routes and the vehicle-provider layer call it
through `Manager.InvokeWith` / `InvokeBatchWith`, so implement it properly. It
must be safe for concurrent use — the live instance is shared across requests,
and `InvokeBatchWith` runs a batch of actions in parallel on one instance.
- **`Shutdown`** — release resources.
### Descriptor & config fields
```go
Descriptor{
Name: "acme", // unique id, [a-z0-9-]
Provider: "ACME Corp", // human label
Version: "1.0.0",
Kind: plugins.KindBuiltin, // or KindExternal
Capabilities: []plugins.Capability{
{ID: "widgets.list", Method: "GET", Endpoint: "/widgets", Description: "List widgets."},
},
AuthType: plugins.AuthAPIKey, // None | APIKey | Basic | OAuth2 | Webhook (metadata only)
ConfigFields: []plugins.ConfigField{
{Key: "apiKey", Label: "API key", Type: "password", Required: true, Secret: true,
Help: "Found under ACME → Settings → API."},
{Key: "region", Label: "Region", Type: "text", Help: "e.g. eu-west-1"},
},
}
```
`ConfigField.Type` is `"text"`, `"password"`, or `"number"` (form input hint).
Set **`Secret: true`** for credentials — the server never echoes them back in
clear; the panel shows a mask (`••••••••`), and on save a field left at the mask
keeps its stored value (so operators don't retype secrets). **`Required: true`**
fields must be non-empty before the plugin can be enabled.
---
## Building a built-in plugin
1. **Create a package** under `internal/plugins/builtin/<name>/`.
2. **Implement `Plugin`** and **register it in `init()`**.
3. **Blank-import** your package from [`builtin/builtin.go`](builtin/builtin.go).
4. **Rebuild** the server.
### Minimal example — `internal/plugins/builtin/acme/acme.go`
```go
package acme
import (
"context"
"encoding/json"
"net/http"
"strings"
"time"
"drivervault/apiserver/internal/plugins"
)
func init() {
plugins.Register("acme", func() plugins.Plugin { return &Plugin{} })
}
type Plugin struct {
apiKey string
region string
client *http.Client
}
func (p *Plugin) Descriptor() plugins.Descriptor {
return plugins.Descriptor{
Name: "acme", Provider: "ACME Corp", Version: "1.0.0",
Kind: plugins.KindBuiltin, AuthType: plugins.AuthAPIKey,
Capabilities: []plugins.Capability{
{ID: "widgets.list", Method: "GET", Endpoint: "/widgets", Description: "List widgets."},
},
ConfigFields: []plugins.ConfigField{
{Key: "apiKey", Label: "API key", Type: "password", Required: true, Secret: true},
{Key: "region", Label: "Region", Type: "text"},
},
}
}
func (p *Plugin) Init(_ context.Context, config map[string]string) error {
p.apiKey = strings.TrimSpace(config["apiKey"])
p.region = strings.TrimSpace(config["region"])
p.client = &http.Client{Timeout: 10 * time.Second}
return nil
}
func (p *Plugin) HealthCheck(ctx context.Context) plugins.Health {
start := time.Now()
req, _ := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, "https://api.acme.example/ping", nil)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+p.apiKey)
resp, err := p.client.Do(req)
lat := time.Since(start).Milliseconds()
if err != nil {
return plugins.Health{Status: plugins.StatusDown, LatencyMs: lat, Detail: err.Error()}
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
if resp.StatusCode >= 200 && resp.StatusCode < 300 {
return plugins.Health{Status: plugins.StatusOK, LatencyMs: lat, Detail: "reachable"}
}
return plugins.Health{Status: plugins.StatusDown, LatencyMs: lat, Detail: "HTTP " + resp.Status}
}
func (p *Plugin) Invoke(ctx context.Context, action string, params json.RawMessage) (json.RawMessage, error) {
// Implement your capabilities; return normalized JSON. Must be safe for
// concurrent use — one instance serves many requests.
return json.RawMessage(`{"ok":true}`), nil
}
func (p *Plugin) Shutdown(context.Context) error { return nil }
```
### Register it for compilation — `internal/plugins/builtin/builtin.go`
```go
import (
_ "drivervault/apiserver/internal/plugins/builtin/acme"
)
```
### Rebuild
```powershell
cd "API Server"
go build -o bin/api-server.exe ./cmd/server
```
Restart the server. The plugin appears in the panel's **Plugins** card,
**disabled** by default.
> DriverVault ships two built-in connectors today — `toyota` (Toyota Connected /
> MyToyota, read-only vehicle data) and `anker-solix` (Anker Solix V1 EV charger)
> — both blank-imported from `builtin/builtin.go`. The **external** kind below
> needs no rebuild and is the easier place to start a new one.
---
## Building an external plugin (no rebuild)
An external plugin is **any HTTP service** you host (Go recommended, but any
language works). You register its base URL at runtime; the server drives it over
a tiny JSON contract.
### The HTTP contract
| Method & path | Purpose | Response |
|---|---|---|
| `GET {base}/manifest` | describe the plugin (optional) | `{provider, version, capabilities, authType, configFields}` |
| `GET {base}/health` | health probe (required) | `2xx` = healthy; optional body `{status, detail}` |
| `POST {base}/invoke` | run a capability (optional; unused in v1) | `{action, params}` in → arbitrary JSON out |
Health rules the server applies: transport error or `5xx``down`; `2xx``ok`;
anything else → `degraded`. An explicit `{"status":"ok|degraded|down","detail":"…"}`
body overrides the status-code heuristic. Bodies are size-limited (health 64 KiB,
manifest 1 MiB).
### Minimal example — a Go plugin service
```go
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
http.HandleFunc("/manifest", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(map[string]any{
"provider": "ACME Cloud",
"version": "2.1.0",
"authType": "apikey",
"capabilities": []map[string]any{
{"id": "widgets.list", "method": "GET", "endpoint": "/widgets", "description": "List widgets."},
}, // a plain []string{"widgets.list"} is also accepted
"configFields": []map[string]any{
{"key": "apiKey", "label": "API key", "type": "password", "required": true, "secret": true},
},
})
})
http.HandleFunc("/health", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(map[string]any{"status": "ok", "detail": "acme cloud reachable"})
})
http.HandleFunc("/invoke", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
var in struct {
Action string `json:"action"`
Params json.RawMessage `json:"params"`
}
json.NewDecoder(r.Body).Decode(&in)
json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(map[string]any{"ok": true, "action": in.Action})
})
http.ListenAndServe(":9100", nil)
}
```
### Register it
From the panel's **Plugins** card → *Register external plugin* (name + base URL),
or via the API:
```bash
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/admin/plugins \
-H "Authorization: $SUPERADMIN_TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"name":"acme-cloud","baseURL":"http://127.0.0.1:9100","provider":"ACME Cloud"}'
```
It starts **disabled**; enable it and run a health check from the panel. Because
it runs as its own process/container, an external plugin is also the
**sandboxing** path for less-trusted integrations.
---
## Lifecycle, config & secrets
- **Enable/disable** and **config** persist to PocketBase: the `app_settings`
record keyed `global`, in its `pluginSettings` field. That is the top (L1)
layer of the integration cascade, stored the same way the org (L2) and user
(L3) layers are. Enabling calls `Init`; disabling calls `Shutdown`.
- **Before the settings have been read** — a cold database, or a service account
still to be configured — every `/api/admin/plugins*` endpoint answers **503**
and no write is accepted. The server never treats an unreachable database as
"no plugins configured", so an outage cannot quietly erase the settings; it
retries in the background until the read succeeds.
- **Upgrading from a pre-PocketBase install**: an existing `plugins.json` (see
`PLUGINS_FILE`) is imported into the database on the first boot that finds no
settings there, and renamed to `plugins.json.migrated`.
- **Secrets** (`Secret: true` fields) are returned masked. On save, a field still
equal to the mask keeps its stored value; send a new value to change it, or an
empty string to clear it.
- **Required** fields are validated when enabling — enabling fails with a clear
error if one is blank.
- If `Init` fails (e.g. bad credentials), the state is still saved and the API
returns the plugin plus a `warning`; fix the config and re-save.
---
## Managing plugins (superadmin API)
All endpoints require a superadmin bearer token (`Authorization: <token>` from
`POST /api/auth/login`). See the panel's **Management API** reference too.
| Method | Path | Body | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| `GET` | `/api/admin/plugins` | — | list all plugins + state + last health |
| `GET` | `/api/admin/plugins/{name}` | — | one plugin |
| `PUT` | `/api/admin/plugins/{name}` | `{enabled?, config?}` | enable/disable + configure |
| `POST` | `/api/admin/plugins` | `{name, baseURL, provider?}` | register an external plugin |
| `DELETE` | `/api/admin/plugins/{name}` | — | remove an external plugin (built-ins only disable) |
| `POST` | `/api/admin/plugins/{name}/health` | — | run a health check now |
---
## Testing your plugin
1. Build + restart (built-in) or start your service (external) and register it.
2. `GET /api/admin/plugins` → confirm your descriptor, config fields, capabilities.
3. `PUT /api/admin/plugins/{name} {"enabled":true, "config":{…}}` → enable with config.
4. `POST /api/admin/plugins/{name}/health` → confirm the live probe classifies correctly.
5. Restart the server → confirm state reloads from PocketBase.
A Go unit test can exercise a built-in directly:
```go
p := &acme.Plugin{}
_ = p.Init(context.Background(), map[string]string{"apiKey": "test"})
if h := p.HealthCheck(context.Background()); h.Status == "" {
t.Fatal("expected a health status")
}
```
---
## Not yet implemented (roadmap)
The contract is shaped for these; see [`doc.go`](doc.go):
- **Generic invocation API** — an endpoint to call *any* plugin's `Invoke` from a
client, with a normalized request/response envelope. The purpose-built callers
exist (`Manager.InvokeWith` / `InvokeBatchWith`, driven by the integration routes
and `internal/api/vehicleproviders.go`); what is missing is the generic route.
- **Resilience** — retry/backoff, circuit breaker, per-plugin latency/error metrics.
- **Per-tenant credentials _for arbitrary plugins_** — the two built-in connectors
already have them, through the hand-written `/api/integrations/toyota` and
`/api/integrations/anker-solix` routes and their **superadmin → org admin →
user** config cascade. What is missing is the generic version: per-org/per-user
config keyed off `ConfigFields`, so a newly registered plugin gets the same
treatment without new endpoints.
- **Audit logging** of plugin access. (Charger *control* commands are already
audited to the `control_audit` collection; this is the wider plugin case.)
Until the generic invocation API lands, `Invoke` is reachable only through the
purpose-built routes: the two integrations' own endpoints, and the vehicle-provider
layer that builds a car from a manufacturer account and feeds the car's provider
tab (see `internal/api/vehicleproviders.go`).