Plugin registry or marketplace

Without a discovery mechanism, third-party plugins die in obscurity regardless of quality. Users resort to searching GitHub for unvetted repos, which fragments the ecosystem, delays adoption, and increases supply-chain risk because developers install whatever first result appears. A registry, naming convention like eslint-plugin-*, or curated list concentrates discovery into a trusted surface, which drives plugin author motivation, accelerates user-experience wins, and gives the core project a lever to flag abandoned or malicious extensions.

Ship the cheapest discovery surface first: adopt a package-manager naming convention (for example my-app-plugin-* on npm) and publish a curated list of known plugins in docs/plugins.md or a JSON registry at src/plugins/registry.json. A minimal seed:

{ "plugins": [{ "name": "my-app-plugin-analytics", "description": "Analytics integration", "npm": "my-app-plugin-analytics" }] }

Link it from the README and the plugin-authoring guide so new authors know where to register.

• ID: marketplace

• Severity: info

• What to look for: Check whether there is a way for users to discover and install third-party plugins. Look for:

  1. A public plugin registry, marketplace, or catalog (web page or API)
  2. A search mechanism — users can browse or search for plugins by functionality
  3. An install mechanism — a CLI command or UI to install plugins from the registry
  4. Alternatively, a convention for finding plugins on npm (e.g., eslint-plugin-*, gatsby-plugin-*, babel-plugin-*)
  5. A curated list in documentation (e.g., "Awesome Plugins" page) Real-world examples:
  • VS Code: marketplace.visualstudio.com
  • npm: keyword conventions (eslint-plugin-*, webpack-plugin-*)
  • WordPress: wordpress.org/plugins
  • Obsidian: community plugin browser built into the app

• Pass criteria: Count all marketplace/registry integration points. At least one discovery mechanism exists: a dedicated registry/marketplace, a documented naming convention for finding plugins on npm/PyPI, a curated list in docs, or a built-in plugin browser.

• Fail criteria: No discovery mechanism. Users can only find plugins by word of mouth or searching GitHub. No naming conventions, no registry, no curated list.

• Skip (N/A) when: The plugin system is internal-only or the project has fewer than 5 published plugins. Discovery mechanisms are premature for very small ecosystems.

• Detail on fail: "No plugin discovery mechanism exists. There is no marketplace, no naming convention for npm packages, no curated list in documentation, and no built-in plugin browser. Users can only find plugins by searching GitHub or asking in community channels."

• Remediation: Start with a naming convention and curated list in docs/plugins.md or src/plugins/registry.json:

  { "plugins": [{ "name": "my-app-plugin-analytics", "description": "Analytics integration", "npm": "my-app-plugin-analytics" }] }