Add a plugin

What a plugin adds

A plugin can contribute a panel, command, settings screen or host behavior. It extends Lyre itself. You do not need one to start testing an ordinary project.

Use lyre-foundation, the CLI supplied with your Lyre desktop build. Run plugin commands on the computer hosting the plugin.

Find the Lyre command

Install the desktop CLI integration, then reopen your terminal and run lyre-foundation --help. The installer uses these standard locations:

Once the command is on PATH, reload a plugin with:

lyre-foundation plugin reload my-plugin

If your terminal cannot find the command, use its full path. In Windows PowerShell:

& "$HOME\.local\bin\lyre-foundation.cmd" plugin reload my-plugin

In a macOS or Linux shell:

~/.local/bin/lyre-foundation plugin reload my-plugin

Replace my-plugin with the installed plugin ID shown by lyre-foundation plugin ls. For a standalone npm installation, follow the CLI quickstart; npm uses its configured global installation directory.

Review the code before installing

Install a local plugin

These commands are for the host owner on the host computer. Replace ./my-plugin with your reviewed plugin directory. Plugin source folders can be anywhere you choose; the CLI command has a standard installation location.

lyre-foundation plugin install ./my-plugin
lyre-foundation plugin ls
lyre-foundation plugin logs my-plugin

The host must have pluginsEnabled: true in its selected configuration. If you choose to enable that setting, review every configured plugin first: it enables the plugin system, not just one new plugin. Apply the root setting with lyre-foundation reload.

Update and remove deliberately

lyre-foundation plugin reload my-plugin
lyre-foundation plugin disable my-plugin
lyre-foundation plugin remove my-plugin

For a reviewed Git source, use lyre-foundation plugin add git:owner/repository --ref VERSION_OR_COMMIT. Replace owner/repository and VERSION_OR_COMMIT with the source and reviewed tag or commit. Updates can change the code you trust. Removing a managed Git source removes its managed checkout; removing a directory source keeps your source folder. Back up your own work first.

Create your first plugin →