Plugin System

EdgeCrab can now discover plugins from ~/.edgecrab/plugins/ and fold them into the same runtime used by built-in tools.

Kinds

• skill: injects SKILL.md content into the system prompt
• tool-server: proxies subprocess tools over newline-delimited JSON-RPC
• script: loads Rhai code for lightweight local extension logic
• hermes: loads Hermes-style Python plugins from plugin.yaml + __init__.py

Standalone skills remain separate from plugins. A skill in ~/.edgecrab/skills/ can bundle helper files and scripts, but a plugin is still the installable runtime unit with its own lifecycle, trust metadata, and enable/disable policy.

That distinction matters for Claude-style skill bundles too:

• A standalone skill may bundle Python helpers under scripts/.
• EdgeCrab renders ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} and ${CLAUDE_SESSION_ID} for those skills.
• Those helper scripts still run through normal tools such as run_terminal.
• Automatic prompt-shell execution and Claude-only fork semantics are not part of the plugin runtime and are not auto-executed.

Discovery Roots

~/.edgecrab/plugins/
.edgecrab/plugins/
~/.hermes/plugins/
/usr/share/edgecrab/plugins/

When HERMES_ENABLE_PROJECT_PLUGINS=true, EdgeCrab also discovers ./.hermes/plugins/ for project-local Hermes compatibility.

Config

plugins:
  enabled: true
  auto_enable: true
  disabled: []
  platform_disabled: {}
  install_dir: ~/.edgecrab/plugins

Plugin disable state is persistent. Disabled plugins stay installed on disk but are excluded from prompt injection and tool dispatch.

That runtime policy is reflected live in the TUI:

• enabled plugin tools appear in /tools under the plugins toolset
• disabled plugins disappear from the active tool inventory without a restart
• re-enabling a plugin re-registers its tools in the same session

Example:

/plugins
/tools
/plugins disable calculator
/tools
/plugins enable calculator
/tools

Plugin search also uses layered caches under ~/.edgecrab/plugins/.hub/cache/:

• source indexes are cached with a TTL
• repo-backed plugin tree scans are cached separately from descriptions
• per-plugin descriptions are cached so repeated searches do not refetch remote metadata
• stale cache is reused when a refresh fails, which keeps the remote browser usable during transient network or GitHub failures

Security and Hub

• Installs are staged in ~/.edgecrab/plugins/.quarantine/
• Every install is statically scanned before activation
• Installed manifests are stamped with trust metadata and a directory checksum
• Install and remove events are appended to ~/.edgecrab/plugins/.hub/audit.log
• edgecrab plugins search <query> searches curated and configured plugin indices
• edgecrab plugins search --source edgecrab <query> targets the official EdgeCrab repo examples directly
• edgecrab plugins search --source hermes <query> targets Hermes-oriented registries directly
• edgecrab plugins search --source hermes-evey <query> targets the curated 42-evey/hermes-plugins catalog
• hub:<source>/<plugin> resolves through the configured hub index before install
• Direct https://...zip plugin archives are supported in addition to GitHub and local paths

Host API

Tool-server plugins now use MCP-style newline-delimited JSON-RPC over stdio in both directions.

• Host requests: initialize, notifications/initialized, tools/list, tools/call
• Plugin reverse-calls: host:platform_info, host:log, host:memory_read, host:memory_write, host:session_search, host:secret_get, host:inject_message, host:tool_call

Hermes Compatibility

EdgeCrab now recognizes Hermes directory plugins with:

plugin.yaml
__init__.py

and a register(ctx) function. Hermes-compatible hook support currently covers:

• requires_env readiness gating to setup-needed
• pre_tool_call
• post_tool_call
• on_session_start
• pre_llm_call
• post_llm_call
• pre_api_request
• post_api_request
• on_session_end
• on_session_finalize
• on_session_reset

pre_llm_call results are appended to the current user message, preserving the system-prompt cache behavior used by Hermes. Plugins that are disabled or setup-needed are not exposed as runtime tools.

The Hermes Python bridge now provides the minimal runtime shims real upstream Hermes plugins expect:

• agent.memory_provider
• tools.registry.tool_error
• hermes_constants
• plugins.* namespace-package imports for repo-backed plugin trees

Compatibility is verified against real upstream NousResearch/hermes-agent assets, including the holographic and honcho plugins plus local-bundle compatibility checks for Hermes optional skills such as github-issues and 1password.

The official EdgeCrab repo also ships Hermes-format examples under plugins/:

• plugins/productivity/calculator
• plugins/developer/json-toolbox

Those examples are indexed by edgecrab-official, so they show up in normal plugin search and can be installed directly from a local checkout.

Compatibility is also verified against real plugins from 42-evey/hermes-plugins, including evey-telemetry and evey-status.

Hermes plugin roots can now be installed directly from the upstream guide layout:

calculator/
├── plugin.yaml
├── __init__.py
├── schemas.py
├── tools.py
├── SKILL.md
└── data/
    └── units.json

edgecrab plugins search --source edgecrab calculator
edgecrab plugins search --source edgecrab json
edgecrab plugins install ./plugins/productivity/calculator
edgecrab plugins install ./plugins/developer/json-toolbox

edgecrab plugins install ./calculator
edgecrab plugins info calculator

edgecrab plugins install ~/src/hermes-agent/plugins/memory/holographic
edgecrab plugins info holographic

edgecrab plugins search --source hermes-evey telemetry
edgecrab plugins install hub:hermes-evey/evey-telemetry
edgecrab plugins install hub:hermes-evey/evey-status

EDGECRAB_PLUGIN_PYTHON=~/.venvs/hermes/bin/python \
  edgecrab plugins list
EDGECRAB_PLUGIN_PYTHON=~/.venvs/hermes/bin/python \
  edgecrab entry-demo status

Remote plugin search only shows plugin-capable artifacts. Hermes standalone skills such as 1password belong in the remote skills browser:

edgecrab skills search 1password
edgecrab skills install hermes-agent:security/1password

Bundled SKILL.md files inside Hermes plugin directories are loaded as plugin skills, so their readiness, compatibility, and related_skills metadata appear in discovery and edgecrab plugins info.

For a full authoring walkthrough, see the Build A Hermes Plugin guide.

Verified runtime coverage includes the Hermes memory-provider cli.py register_cli(subparser) convention and gateway session lifecycle parity across reset and shutdown flows.

CLI

edgecrab plugins list
edgecrab plugins info github-tools
edgecrab plugins status
edgecrab plugins enable github-tools
edgecrab plugins disable github-tools
edgecrab plugins toggle [github-tools]
edgecrab plugins install github:edgecrab/plugins/github-tools
edgecrab plugins install hub:community/github-tools
edgecrab plugins install https://example.com/github-tools.zip
edgecrab plugins install ./plugins/github-tools
edgecrab plugins audit --lines 20
edgecrab plugins search github
edgecrab plugins search --source hermes weather
edgecrab plugins browse
edgecrab plugins refresh
edgecrab plugins remove github-tools

The same plugin state is visible in the TUI Tool Manager:

• /tools shows only tools that are currently registered
• plugin tools are marked as dynamic and grouped under the plugins toolset
• toggling a plugin through /plugins, the plugin toggle overlay, install, update, or remove refreshes that tool inventory immediately