UnCorded Plugin SDK

Developer- and agent-facing documentation for building UnCorded plugins.

UnCorded is a self-hosted collaborative platform where users run a Docker container on their own hardware. Every feature is a plugin — chat, voice, dashboards, game integrations. This site documents the SDK you use to build one.

Mental model

A plugin is three things that the runtime wires together:

1. A manifest (manifest.json) — declares the plugin's slug, entry points, and the exact set of capabilities it's allowed to use. Undeclared capability = hard reject at runtime.
2. A backend — a Bun process the runtime spawns as a subprocess. It talks to the runtime over a stdio JSON IPC channel, wrapped by the @uncorded/plugin-sdk createPlugin() handle. It owns a private SQLite database, registers request handlers, publishes and subscribes to events, and pushes real-time updates to clients.
3. A frontend — an HTML panel rendered in a sandboxed iframe in the client shell. It uses the @uncorded/plugin-sdk-frontendcreatePluginFrontend() handle to call backend handlers, subscribe to broadcasts, upload files, and reach platform features (voice, panels, user cards).

manifest.json ── declares ──▶ capabilities the runtime enforces
      │
      ├── backend/  ── createPlugin() ──▶ subprocess ⇄ runtime (stdio JSON IPC)
      │                                     own SQLite · events · broadcast · schedule
      │
      └── frontend/ ── createPluginFrontend() ──▶ sandboxed iframe ⇄ shell (postMessage)
                                                  request() · subscribe() · files · voice

For AI agents

This site emits the llms.txt convention:

• /llms.txt — a flat, linked index of every page.
• /llms-full.txt — every page concatenated into one document. Fetch this single URL to load the entire SDK surface into context.

If you are an agent building a plugin, start from /llms-full.txt, then read the manifest reference and permissions reference to get the capability declarations right — that is where most first-attempt plugins fail.

Where to start

You want to…	Go to
Build a working plugin end-to-end	Getting started
Understand the folder layout & packaging	Plugin anatomy
Know what happens from spawn to shutdown	Lifecycle
Use SQLite, KV, events, presence	Data & events
Look up a manifest field	Manifest reference
Look up a capability string	Permissions reference
Look up a backend SDK method	Backend SDK
Look up a frontend SDK method	Frontend SDK
Debug the wire protocol	IPC protocol
Proxy a self-hosted web app	Reverse-proxy plugins
Read a real, annotated plugin	text-channels walkthrough

Packages

Package	Import	Role
@uncorded/plugin-sdk	createPlugin()	Backend runtime SDK (subprocess side).
@uncorded/plugin-sdk-frontend	/sdk/plugin-frontend.js	Panel/iframe SDK (createPluginFrontend(), sdk.proxy, sdk.platform).
@uncorded/shared	—	Manifest schema (PluginManifest, ProxyMount) and the validator.
@uncorded/protocol	—	Wire types shared by runtime and SDK (IPC frames, user shape).

Docs move in lockstep with the code. Every snippet here is adapted from real source in the monorepo and the shipped core plugins. When the SDK surface changes, the page changes in the same PR.