Extension Platform

Overview

OpenConduit has a first-class extension system modeled loosely after VS Code's contribution model. Extensions declare what they provide via a manifest — the runtime activates them and routes their contributions into the appropriate registries.

What Extensions Can Do Today

• Contribute sidebar panels via the ActivityBar (Phase 1 & 2 of #38 — live in @openconduit/core v2.0.0+)
• Register commands (show in command palette, bind keyboard shortcuts)
• Register slash commands (inline /command autocomplete in the chat input)
• Contribute settings (schema-driven UI in the Settings panel)
• Add bottom panel tabs
• Add notification messages (via addNotification over IPC)
• Use the ExtensionAPI in an activate(api) hook to read/write conversations, settings, UI state, and shared stores (#55)
• Register AI tools that the language model can call — implemented as plain renderer-side JavaScript functions, no MCP server required
• Contribute main views that replace the chat pane with a full-screen component (e.g. Compare Models)
• Contribute split pane views rendered alongside chat in the right split pane
• Contribute secondary sidebar panels as additional tabs in the far-right panel
• Contribute status bar items rendered in the bottom status bar (Phase 3 — left or right aligned)
• Register Zustand store slices accessible to other extensions via extensionRegistry.getStore(id) (Phase 3)
• Attach message badges — per-message annotations rendered as pills in the message metadata row (Phase 3)
• Register conversation modes — plug in a custom send pipeline that replaces the default single-model send path (Phase 3)

How It Works

1. An extension is a bundled JavaScript file (dist/index.js) installed to userData/extensions/<id>/ alongside a manifest.json.
2. On startup (and after a marketplace install) loadInstalledExtensions() scans that directory, reads each bundle via the preload bridge, wraps it in a Blob URL, and dynamically import()s it.
3. Each bundle calls window.__openConduit.extensionRegistry.registerExtension(manifest, contributions) to declare its panels and other contributions.
4. ActivityBar and other consumers subscribe to the registry and re-render reactively when a new extension registers.

Built-in Extensions

First-party features are implemented as built-in extensions registered at module-load time:

Extension ID	Panel
openconduit.personas	Personas panel (order 20)

Registration APIs in Place

Feature	Status
extensionRegistry + ActivityBarContribution	✅ Live — sidebar panel contributions
commandRegistry + CommandContribution	✅ Live — command palette + keybindings
slashCommandRegistry + SlashCommand	✅ Live — chat input / autocomplete
settingsRegistry + SettingsContribution	✅ Live — schema-driven settings UI
bottomPanelRegistry + BottomPanelTab	✅ Live — bottom panel tab registration
addNotification in uiStore	✅ Live — AppNotification.source carries extension id
ExtensionAPI + activate(api)	✅ Live — full runtime API surface (#55)
api.tools.register() + contributes.tools	✅ Live — renderer-side AI tool contributions
MainViewContribution + contributes.mainViews	✅ Live — full-pane view replacing ChatArea (#56)
SplitPaneViewContribution + contributes.splitPaneViews	✅ Live — right split pane views (#56)
SecondarySidebarPanelContribution + contributes.secondarySidebarPanels	✅ Live — secondary sidebar tabs (#56)
StatusBarItemContribution + contributes.statusBarItems	✅ Live — bottom status bar items, left/right aligned (#38 Phase 3)
StoreSliceContribution + contributes.stores	✅ Live — shared Zustand store slices (#38 Phase 3)
MessageBadgeContribution + contributes.messageBadges	✅ Live — per-message badge annotations (#38 Phase 3)
ConversationModeContribution + contributes.conversationModes	✅ Live — custom send pipeline override (#38 Phase 3)

See Extension Manifest, Activity Bar, Commands, Slash Commands, Settings, Bottom Panel, View Contributions, Extension API, and Tool Contributions for the API reference.