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Getting Started

Prerequisites​

Plugins are developed in TypeScript. You should have a basic understanding of TypeScript (and JavaScript) before you start developing a plugin. While you can develop with just JavaScript, we recommend using TypeScript as it provides a lot of benefits.

Discord is made using React, so you will likely need a basic understanding of React for your plugin.

You will also need to have Node.js, pnpm, and git installed on your computer, as well as a code editor (we recommend VSCode).

To use and test the plugin, you will need to have Discord with Replugged installed.

Creating a plugin​

Our plugin template has everything you need to develop and release your plugin. It includes:

  • Sample plugin (silences your typing indicator)
  • Scripts to build and package your plugin
  • GitHub actions to release your plugin when you push a tag
  • VSCode workspace settings to format your code

Installing​

  1. Create a copy of the template
  2. Clone your new repository and cd into it
  3. Install dependencies with pnpm install
  4. Build the plugin with pnpm run build. This will compile the plugin and install it in Replugged.
  5. In Replugged settings, go to the Plugins tab and click "Load missing plugins" to load the plugin.
danger

Do not clone your plugin into the Replugged plugin directory. Otherwise, the build script will delete the folder with your source code as it attempts to put the compiled plugin in that same location, and you will lose any local changes.

Customizing your plugin​

tip

See the manifest documentation for more information about the manifest file and some additional keys you can use.

The plugin template has a manifest.json file which contains information about your plugin. You should edit this file to include the plugin information as well as your information.

The plugin ID should be in reverse domain name notation. For example, if your website is example.com and your plugin is called my-plugin, the plugin ID should be com.example.MyPlugin. If you don't have a website, you can make one up.

danger

The plugin ID cannot be changed once your plugin is released. Choose wisely!

The version and updater info is used by Replugged to check for updates. The updater.id key should be changed to the username and repository of your plugin. For example, the plugin template is hosted at https://github.com/replugged-org/plugin-template, so the updater.id is replugged-org/plugin-template.

caution

Make sure you update the updater.id key to your plugin's repository. If you don't, Replugged will try to update your plugin to the plugin template. Your users will have to uninstall and reinstall your plugin to fix this.

Development​

The plugin template has a watch script which will watch for changes to your plugin and automatically rebuild it. You can run it with pnpm run watch.

After it's initially installed, the watch/build scripts will automatically reload your plugin in Discord when you make changes. If you don't want it to do this, you can use the --no-reload flag with your command to disable it.

Some plugins will require you to fully reload Discord (Ctrl + R) to apply changes, for example if you are using plaintext patches (we will go over that later).

Building, updating, and releasing​

Release Tool​

The plugin template includes a release script which will take care of updating the version number, committing the changes, tagging the release, and pushing the tag to GitHub. You can run it with pnpm run release. It will prompt you for all the things it needs and will confirm with you before it pushes anything to GitHub.

Manual Instructions​

tip

Using the release tool above is recommended and easier and will work for most plugins. However, if you need to or would prefer to do it manually, you can follow the instructions below.

  1. Update the version number in manifest.json. The version number doesn't need to follow any specific format, but does need to be changed in order for Replugged to detect an update.If this is your first release, you can leave it as 1.0.0.
  2. Commit your changes and push them to GitHub.
  3. Create a new tag with git tag v1.0.0 (replace 1.0.0 with your version number).
note

The tag does not necessarily need to be named the same as the version number (although we recommend doing that to make things simpler), but it must start with a v. The GitHub action will not run if the tag does not start with a v.

  1. Push the tag to GitHub with git push --tags.

The GitHub action will automatically build and package your plugin and create a new release. The release will contain an .asar file which contains your plugin. It should also contain a copy of your manifest file which is used by Replugged to check for updates.

Sharing your plugin​

Replugged Discord​

In order to share your plugin in our Discord server, your plugin will first have to be approved, and then added to our store. For more information on this process and how to request approval, please see this page.

You can create a link to install your plugin which will automatically open Replugged and prompt the user to confirm the installation. For example: https://replugged.dev/install?identifier=replugged-org/plugin-template&source=github.

  • identifier - same as updater.id in the manifest
  • source - same as updater.source in the manifest. Currently, github and store are supported. If your plugin is from the store, this can be omitted.
  • id - Same as id in the manifest. This is only needed if your update source is GitHub and your release contains multiple plugins. Otherwise, Replugged will automatically detect the plugin ID.

Button for GitHub readme​

You can use your own markdown if you want, but we recommend using the following button:

[![Install in Replugged](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Install%20in%20Replugged-blue?style=for-the-badge&logo=none)](https://replugged.dev/install?identifier=YOUR_ADDON_INFO_HERE&source=github)
note

Make sure to update the link with your plugin's information.