Plugins

Domain capability — an injected methodology, a domain reference, a review discipline — ships as a plugin: a plain folder that follows one small protocol, the open Agent Plugins 1.0.0 format. There is no separate taxonomy to learn for different kinds of capability packs. One format, one install step, one way to hand domain capability to a working agent — and nothing about the tool face changes: a plugin injects skills and resources, while the tools a node runs with stay fixed by the engine, per role.

What a plugin is

A plugin is a directory under your nebflow plugins folder (~/.nebflow/plugins/<name>/):

my-plugin/
├── plugin.json        # manifest (required)
└── skills/
    └── my-method/
        ├── SKILL.md   # injected in full into the session
        └── <resources>  # optional supporting files this skill references

• A plugin must provide at least one skill: skills/<name>/SKILL.md. Supporting files the skill references live beside it
• Unknown fields and unknown folders are ignored with a warning, so plugins stay forward-compatible as the protocol grows

The manifest

plugin.json follows the open Agent Plugins 1.0.0 format:

{
  "$schema": "https://agent-plugins.org/schemas/1.0.0/plugin.schema.json",
  "name": "explorer-toolkit",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Codebase exploration and solution-planning methodology."
}

• name is the only required field; version and description are what the catalog and the plugin panel show
• nebflow ships with real plugins you can read as examples: explorer-toolkit (exploration and planning methodology) and design-spec (UI/UX design review methodology) — both capability packs made of methodology skills
• Every manifest field is covered in the Plugin Config reference

What a plugin provides

That is the whole surface. A plugin adds knowledge and resources to a node; it does not add tools. The node's tool face comes from the engine and is fixed by role, so two plugins with the same skills always run with the same tools.

Installing a plugin

Plugins are powerful — injected instructions steer everything the node does — so nothing runs until you install it. You choose what to install, and installing it is the whole act: there is no separate step to clear.

• A plugin you have not installed simply is not there: it cannot be assigned to any node, and its skills are not injected
• Installing a plugin lays out what you are about to bring in: its metadata, every skill's content preview, and every file that ships with it
• Installing records a digest of the plugin's entire content.
• Installation is a runtime property too: if an installed plugin's content stops matching the digest recorded when you installed it, the plugin's skills are withdrawn immediately and the session is notified

Install and remove from the plugin panel in the app, or from the command line: nebflow plugin list, nebflow plugin approve <name>, nebflow plugin revoke <name>.

The plugin catalog

Installed plugins appear in the plugin catalog — the list of capability packs a task dispatcher sees when it plans work. A plugin you have never installed never shows up there. The catalog is how specialization gets chosen: the dispatcher picks plugins per job, by name.

Assigning plugins to nodes

Capabilities attach where the work happens:

• Each node in a project runs with the plugins assigned to it — assignment is per node, not global, and a set of assignments can be saved once as a preset and reused
• The moment a node starts, its session carries exactly those capabilities: skills injected, resources available. Nothing to install mid-run
• Assigning a plugin that is missing or not installed fails the node loudly — capability gaps are never silently ignored
• When the node finishes, the injected skills go with the session. Nothing keeps running in the background

How plugins fit the picture

• Plugins decide what an agent knows how to do; memory is what it knows about you, and the sandbox is what it may touch
• See Plugin Config for every configuration field, and Specialized Agents for what you can build with this