maintain-dynamic-plugins

name	maintain-dynamic-plugins
description	Maintain NeMo Relay dynamic plugin loaders, manifests, Rust native SDKs, gRPC worker protocol, Python worker SDK, docs, tests, and release workflow coverage
author	NVIDIA Corporation and Affiliates
license	Apache-2.0

Maintain Dynamic Plugins

Companion Guidance

Use karpathy-guidelines, validate-change, maintain-packaging, and contribute-docs alongside this skill when implementation, packaging, CI, or documentation changes are involved.

Use this skill for plugin.kind = "rust_dynamic", plugin.kind = "worker", nemo-relay-plugin, nemo-relay-worker, nemo-relay-worker-proto, nemo-relay-types, and the Python nemo-relay-plugin package.

Rules

• Keep the stable boundary explicit: native plugins cross a C ABI; worker plugins cross grpc-v1.
• Do not pass Rust runtime types, trait objects, futures, or allocator-owned strings across the native dynamic-library boundary.
• Typed native middleware futures run on the SDK-owned Tokio executor. Keep subscribers synchronous and preserve raw synchronous ABI registrations.
• Define closed worker transport structures in protobuf when generated clients must enforce their fields. Keep open application payloads lossless by using JsonValue or JsonEnvelope rather than google.protobuf.Value.
• Keep relay-plugin.toml dynamic records separate from generic runtime components. Enabled dynamic records may synthesize internal component specs; disabled records stay inspectable but unloaded.
• Relay 0.8 establishes the native API 1 and grpc-v1 canonical ToolExecutionResult baseline. Require every dynamic plugin to rebuild and declare a compat.relay range that excludes versions before 0.8. Recommend >=0.8.0,<1.0; open-ended or narrower 0.8-or-newer ranges are valid.
• Treat compat.relay as the plugin author's compatibility assertion, not proof that an artifact was rebuilt. Do not add a legacy raw-result adapter.
• Relay 0.8 retains the grpc-v1 identifier and nemo.relay.worker.v1 package while changing the tool-result protobuf types; every worker must regenerate its bindings and rebuild. Native ABI v4 permits append-only host-table extensions guarded by struct_size; existing fields must remain frozen at their original offsets. Incompatible native JSON, reordered or replaced native fields, or incompatible worker protobuf changes must bump native_api or worker_protocol.
• Do not add tests under src; Rust tests belong in crate tests/ trees and Python SDK tests belong under python/tests.
• Native and worker plugins are trusted extensions. Document that native plugins are in-process and unsandboxed; worker plugins provide process isolation but not a security sandbox.

Checklist

• Manifest validation covers kind, compatibility, load contract, integrity, capability mismatch, and disabled-plugin behavior.
• Native loader keeps libraries alive until registered callbacks are cleared and deregisters plugin kinds before unload.
• Worker activation covers process launch, token auth, handshake, validation, declarative registration, proxy rollback, cancellation, and shutdown.
• Rust and Python SDKs expose every supported registration surface.
• Runtime helpers cover marks, scopes, continuations, and isolated scope stacks.
• plugins list, plugins inspect, and plugins validate report lifecycle and compatibility status without leaking secret config.
• Top-level doctor reports resolved dynamic plugin and host configuration status.
• When detailed dynamic plugin guides exist, they keep Rust native, Python worker, and grpc-v1 protocol details on separate pages.
• justfile, Codecov, and CI package/test workflows include new plugin crates and packages.

Validation

just build-test-plugin-fixtures
cargo test -p nemo-relay-types
cargo test -p nemo-relay-plugin
cargo test -p nemo-relay-worker-proto
cargo test -p nemo-relay-worker
cargo test -p nemo-relay --features worker-grpc --test native_plugin_integration --test worker_plugin_integration
just test-python-plugin
just test-rust
just test-python
just docs

The canonical just test-rust, just test-python, and just test-go recipes prepare plugin fixtures automatically. Run just build-test-plugin-fixtures before raw focused native or worker plugin tests; fixture compilation must not happen inside an individual test case.

For broad runtime or public API changes, run the full validate-change matrix.

References

• crates/core/src/plugin/dynamic/
• crates/plugin
• crates/worker
• crates/worker-proto
• crates/types
• python/plugin
• examples/rust-native-plugin
• docs/build-plugins
• examples/python-grpc-worker-plugin