| name | mall-self-curation |
| description | Operate the Plugin Mall's canonical vendor, contribution, scan, score, render, and validation workflows. Use when importing or refreshing curated plugins, reviewing contributor PRs, running first-party maintenance, debugging the weekly catalog refresh, or onboarding to Mall internals. |
| lastReviewed | 2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z |
Mall Self-Curation
The Plugin Mall is self-curating. Day-to-day operations (inventory, scoring, catalog publishing, staleness pruning) run inside this repo's .github/workflows/scan-sources.yml. This skill is the operational playbook for that pipeline.
When to Use
- Authoring or debugging anything under
scripts/scan-sources.cjs / normalize-frontmatter.cjs / compute-trust.cjs / list-refs.cjs / render-catalog.cjs
- Weekly catalog-refresh PR (
catalog-refresh/YYYY-MM-DD) is stuck or producing surprising deltas
- New source added to
sources/supported-stores.json — verifying it flows through the pipeline
- New plugin shape encountered (frontmatter convention we haven't seen before)
- Importing or refreshing a first-party plugin with
npm run vendor
- Preparing or reviewing a contributor submission with
submit:prepare / submit:validate
- Refreshing first-party catalog state with
npm run maintain -- --curated
- Onboarding to Mall internals
Canonical operator commands
| Role | Command | Writes | Approval boundary |
|---|
| Maintainer | npm run vendor -- --source <path-or-repo> --category <category> --repository <url> --ref <tag-or-sha> | None by default | Dry-run; add --apply, and --replace for existing plugins |
| Maintainer | npm run maintain -- --curated | First-party catalog, trust, marketplace, README, rendered pages | Review git diff before commit |
| Maintainer | npm run maintain -- --full | Full registered-store catalog surface | Requires SOURCES_DIR and GitHub auth |
| Contributor | npm run submit:prepare -- ... --apply | Proposed plugin payload + marketplace entry in contributor branch | Never commits, pushes, merges, or approves |
| Contributor / CI | npm run submit:validate -- --plugin <category>/<name> | None | Structural eligibility only; CODEOWNER decides acceptance |
All plugin packaging routes through scripts/lib/plugin-package.cjs. Do not
author a second copier or validator for one plugin. The shared library owns
component-path normalization, prompt renaming, metadata generation, secret and
symlink rejection, the 100-file limit, and atomic replacement.
Two PR lanes
| Lane | Trigger | Merge behavior |
|---|
| Generated catalog refresh | Weekly or manual scan-sources.yml | Auto-merges after deterministic tests and validation; workflow-owned paths only |
| Curated plugin contribution | Human PR under plugins/ | validate-plugin-pr.yml reports checks; never auto-merges; @fabioc-aloha CODEOWNER approval required |
Do not apply the catalog-refresh auto-merge rule to plugin contributions. A
green contribution is structurally reviewable, not editorially accepted.
The pipeline (per .github/workflows/scan-sources.yml)
bootstrap-sources.cjs ─┐
scan-sources.cjs │
normalize-frontmatter.cjs ├─▶ catalog/index.json
list-refs.cjs │ catalog/stores/*.json
compute-trust.cjs │ scoring/trust-audit.{json,md}
render-catalog.cjs │ catalog/INDEX.md + per-store + per-category
validate-catalog.cjs ─┘ structural gate before merge
README.md (storefront)
Each step is idempotent: re-running with no upstream changes produces byte-identical output.
| Step | Owns | Reads | Writes |
|---|
bootstrap-sources.cjs | Source-repo clones into $SOURCES_DIR | sources/supported-stores.json | $SOURCES_DIR/<name>/ (one shallow clone per third-party store; plugin-mall is excluded — it's this repo) |
scan-sources.cjs | Per-plugin metadata extraction | sources/supported-stores.json + $SOURCES_DIR/<name>/<pluginDir>/<plugin>/ + this repo's plugins/<category>/<name>/ (for plugin-mall self-scan) | catalog/stores/<store>.json (without trust scores yet) |
normalize-frontmatter.cjs | Standard + extended + raw three-layer schema | catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].frontmatter.raw) | catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].frontmatter.standard + extended) |
list-refs.cjs | Per-plugin version discovery | $SOURCES_DIR/<name>/.git/ + plugin source_path | catalog/stores/<store>.json (plugins[*].available_refs) |
compute-trust.cjs | Trust score (provenance + 5 signals) | catalog/stores/*.json + scoring/github-stats.json | catalog/stores/*.json (store_trust + plugins[*].trust_score) + scoring/trust-audit.{json,md} |
render-catalog.cjs | JSON → MD rendering | catalog/stores/*.json | catalog/index.json + catalog/INDEX.md + catalog/stores/<store>.md (one per store) + catalog/categories/<cat>.md (one per category) + README.md (storefront) + sources/SOURCES.md (rendered registry) |
validate-catalog.cjs | Structural integrity gate | Registry + generated JSON/Markdown | Exit 0 only when registry, stores, counts, trust fields, and rendered surfaces reconcile |
The plugin-mall self-entry — load-bearing rule
sources/supported-stores.json includes one entry with name: "plugin-mall" and provenance: true. This entry refers to this repo itself and is the mechanism that puts Mall-curated plugins in the same catalog as third-party plugins.
Two rules govern it:
- Bootstrap MUST skip
plugin-mall. This repo is already checked out; cloning it from itself is wasteful and could cause race conditions during the workflow. bootstrap-sources.cjs filters by name !== "plugin-mall".
- Scan MUST include
plugin-mall. The scan walks $REPO_ROOT/plugins/ (not $SOURCES_DIR/plugin-mall/) and produces catalog/stores/plugin-mall.json like any other store. scan-sources.cjs resolves the path conditionally: third-party stores use $SOURCES_DIR/<name || local_dir_name>/<pluginDir>; plugin-mall uses $REPO_ROOT/<pluginDir>.
Crossing this boundary (cloning self in bootstrap, or skipping self in scan) is the most common source of bugs in this pipeline.
Trust scoring formula
Computed by compute-trust.cjs; signals published alongside score so readers can audit why a score is what it is.
| Signal | Range | Source | Mall-as-store | Third-party typical |
|---|
| Provenance | 0 or +50 | supported-stores.json provenance field | +50 | 0 |
| Store maintenance | 0–15 | scoring/github-stats.json last_commit recency | 15 | 0–15 |
| Store adoption | 0–10 | GitHub stars + contributors via scoring/github-stats.json | 10 | 0–10 |
| License clarity | 0–10 | OSI-approved=10, clear non-permissive=7, ambiguous=0 | 7 (PolyForm-NC) | 0–10 |
| Frontmatter completeness | 0–10 | description + version + lastReviewed presence | 10 | 0–10 |
| README presence | 0–5 | README ≥ 200 chars | 5 | 0–5 |
Mall-as-store ceiling: 97/100. Third-party stores cap at 50 by construction (no provenance). Per-plugin score adds up to +20 from plugin-specific signals on top of store score.
If the formula drifts from this table, update this skill in the same commit. Changes to the weights or signals are [behaviour]-class commits; changes that alter what the published-signal contract guarantees are [constitutional].
Workflow + cadence
- Weekly cron: Mondays 11:00 UTC per
.github/workflows/scan-sources.yml
- PR-back: only when
catalog/, scoring/, README.md, or sources/SOURCES.md change (timestamp-only deltas filtered)
- Manual dispatch:
workflow_dispatch available for ad-hoc re-scans (e.g., after adding a store to supported-stores.json)
- Deterministic pre-merge gate:
npm test + npm run validate must pass before the catalog-refresh PR can open or merge
- Generated refresh oversight: catalog-refresh PRs auto-merge after gates; the merged diff is the sampling surface for Steward oversight
- Contributor approval: plugin PRs never auto-merge and require CODEOWNER review
What the Mall does vs out-of-scope
| Concern | Owner |
|---|
Add / remove a source store from supported-stores.json | Mall (this skill + source-inventory) |
| Tune trust score weights | Mall (this skill + compute-trust.cjs) |
| Scan / score / render / publish pipeline | Mall |
| Curated plugin payload validation | Mall automation, followed by maintainer approval |
| Decide a plugin earns a slot in any consumer project's baseline | Out of scope (consumer-owned decision) |
| Coherence with a specific consumer project | Out of scope (consumer-owned audit) |
| Reframe what counts as "curated" | Out of scope (editorial decision, not pipeline) |
| Periodic review of how the catalog is consumed downstream | Out of scope (consumer-owned) |
If a question crosses the line into editorial or downstream policy, route it out of the workflow. Don't self-modify cross-repo policy from inside the Mall.
Curation log
Every editorial Mall decision lands in docs/curation-log.md in this repo (Mall's own append-only log). Decisions ship with re-eval dates; routine refreshes do not need log entries unless they triggered a curation action.
Anti-Patterns
| Anti-pattern | Correction |
|---|
Editing brain files (skills/instructions/prompts/agents) under plugins/ during the workflow | The workflow MUST NOT modify plugins/ — editorial changes ship via PR review only. The workflow only writes to catalog/, scoring/, README.md, sources/SOURCES.md. |
| Treating a green contributor check as approval | Automation establishes structural eligibility. The CODEOWNER still judges evidence, overlap, license, safety, category, and maintenance. |
Hand-copying a source plugin into plugins/ | Use npm run vendor or npm run submit:prepare; both use the shared canonical packager. |
Bootstrap re-cloning plugin-mall from itself | bootstrap-sources.cjs MUST filter name !== "plugin-mall". |
Scan skipping plugin-mall | scan-sources.cjs MUST include plugin-mall (walks $REPO_ROOT/plugins/, not bootstrapped sources). |
| Trust score without published signals | Every score MUST come with its signal breakdown in catalog/stores/<store>.json trust_signals field. |
| Hardcoded "curated" tier flag in code | There is NO tier flag in the schema. Curation bias emerges from provenance: true in supported-stores.json. |
| Quietly fudging the license signal so Mall scores 100 | Score honestly. PolyForm-NC = 7/10. The provenance +50 already carries the first-party trust weight. |
Falsifiability
This skill needs revision if any of the following occur by 2026-08-29 (90 days):
- The workflow modifies a file outside
catalog/, scoring/, README.md, sources/SOURCES.md ≥1 time
- A structurally inconsistent registry/catalog/render state passes
npm run validate ≥1 time
- Trust scores cluster oddly (e.g., third-party score consistently > 60 — provenance bonus undercalibrated)
- Mall-curated plugins fail to rank #1 in
/mall-search for the same name as a third-party entry (provenance signal not flowing)
- A new source-shape (frontmatter convention) breaks
normalize-frontmatter.cjs ≥2 times without surfacing in scoring/trust-audit.md
- The boundary table (what the Mall does vs out-of-scope) produces wrong-routing decisions ≥2 times in a quarter
Track in docs/curation-log.md tagged [MALL-SELF-CURATION].
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