Plugin Designer

What is it?

A plugin is the unit you build, test, version, ship and install. Plugin Studio is its designer. The screen-by-screen work is in Create a plugin and Check, build and publish; this page is the map.

Plugin types

Type	Holds	Use it for
UI plugin	pages, forms, themes	new screens over existing data
Backend plugin	entities, rules, Java or Node code	logic and APIs
Full application	everything above plus roles, menus, seed data	a complete module (Equipment Loans)
Service plugin	a backend in its own container	heavy or independent logic
Extension	depends on another plugin	tenant enhancements (Customize)
Integration plugin	connectors and integration flows	outside systems
Country pack / Industry pack	localized rules, forms, tax and compliance	region or industry needs

What a plugin holds

Metadata (plugin.json): id, name, version, type, dependencies, permissions, extendable, extension points. Artifacts: entities, pages, forms, workflows, rules, menus, reports. Optional code and libraries, database objects created through entities, jobs and events declared as artifacts.

Lifecycle

Create -> Develop -> Validate -> Security scan -> Test -> Package -> Publish -> Install -> Upgrade -> Uninstall

Today: create (wizard), develop (designers, Java/Node), validate, test (Java/Node tests, workflow simulate), package, publish (one pipeline), install, upgrade (with the upgrade guard), uninstall, roll back. Security scan is Planned (Security scanning).

Features

Explorer groups, wizard, Problems, snapshots and restore, export / import / clone, Java and Node build and test, backend service control, customize (extend, copy, overrides), AI drafting, CLI and MCP.

Adding Engagement and Documents definitions

The Explorer in Plugin Studio lists these kinds next to the other artifacts: Audiences, Journeys and Contact policy under Integration, and Document categories, Retention policies and Document types under Data. New opens a list of the ones you built in your own workspace; choose one and it is copied into the plugin as metadata/<kind>/<code>.json. You need the manage right for that feature to see the list, and a code that already exists in the plugin cannot be added twice.

When the plugin is installed, each item goes to the engine that owns it: a journey arrives as a draft with nobody chosen to run it, an audience, category or retention policy that already exists is left alone, and the contact policy installs only where none exists. People, runs, files and documents never travel. The same operation from the CLI or MCP is add-package-item (see Operations reference).

Security and deployment

Roles and permissions ship inside the plugin; installing needs an administrator. Deployment modes are covered in Deployment.

Related

Code extensions, Versioning, Marketplace.