caido-frontend

name	caido-frontend
description	Caido Frontend SDK Rules and Patterns

Caido Frontend SDK

Overview

The Caido Frontend SDK is used for creating UI components, pages, and handling user interactions in Caido plugins.

Entry Point

Frontend plugins are initialized via packages/frontend/src/index.ts:

import { Caido } from "@caido/sdk-frontend";
import { API, BackendEvents } from "backend";

// Define SDK type with backend API
export type FrontendSDK = Caido<API, BackendEvents>;

// Plugin initialization
export const init = (sdk: FrontendSDK) => {
  // Create pages and UI
  createPage(sdk);

  // Register sidebar items
  sdk.sidebar.registerItem("My Plugin", "/my-plugin-page", {
    icon: "fas fa-rocket"
  });

  // Register commands
  sdk.commands.register("my-command", {
    name: "My Custom Command",
    run: () => sdk.backend.myCustomFunction("Hello"),
  });
};

SDK Type Definitions

For plugins WITHOUT backend, this is fine:

export type FrontendSDK = Caido<Record<string, never>, Record<string, never>>;

For plugins WITH backend:

import { Caido } from "@caido/sdk-frontend";
import { API, BackendEvents } from "backend";

export type FrontendSDK = Caido<API, BackendEvents>;

Command Pattern

Commands provide a unified way to register actions that can be triggered from:

• Command palette (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+P)
• Context menus (right-click)
• UI buttons
• Keyboard shortcuts

Commands is a frontend-only concept.

// Define command IDs as constants
const Commands = {
  processData: "my-plugin.process-data",
  exportResults: "my-plugin.export-results",
} as const;

// Register commands
sdk.commands.register(Commands.processData, {
  name: "Process Data",
  run: async () => {
    const result = await sdk.backend.processData();
    sdk.window.showToast(`Processed ${result.count} items`, {
      variant: "success"
    });
  },
  group: "My Plugin",
});

// Add to command palette
sdk.commandPalette.register(Commands.processData);

// Add to context menus
sdk.menu.registerItem({
  type: "Request",
  commandId: Commands.processData,
  leadingIcon: "fas fa-cog",
});

Working with Requests and Responses

Creating and Sending Requests

import { RequestSpec } from "caido:utils";
import { type Request, type Response } from "caido:utils";

// Create a new request
const spec = new RequestSpec("https://api.example.com/data");
spec.setMethod("POST");
spec.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
spec.setBody(JSON.stringify({ key: "value" }));

// Send the request
const result = await sdk.requests.send(spec);
if (result.response) {
  const statusCode = result.response.getCode();
  const responseBody = result.response.getBody()?.toText();
}

Working with Request/Response Editors

// Create editors for viewing/editing HTTP data
const reqEditor = sdk.ui.httpRequestEditor();
const respEditor = sdk.ui.httpResponseEditor();

// Get DOM elements
const reqElement = reqEditor.getElement();
const respElement = respEditor.getElement();

// Style and layout
reqElement.style.width = "50%";
respElement.style.width = "50%";

const editorsContainer = document.createElement("div");
editorsContainer.style.display = "flex";
editorsContainer.appendChild(reqElement);
editorsContainer.appendChild(respElement);

Frontend Error Handling

When calling backend APIs from the frontend, handle Result types gracefully:

// Frontend usage - no try/catch needed
const handleProcess = async () => {
  const result = await sdk.backend.processData(inputValue);

  if (result.kind === "Error") {
    sdk.window.showToast(result.error, { variant: "error" });
    return;
  }

  // Handle successful result
  const data = result.value;
  sdk.window.showToast("Processing completed!", { variant: "success" });
};