Pluggable CLI

• Each subcommand is a plugin?
• Versioning and/or stability will be important?
  • Maybe plugins never change and instead you prefix them with a version?
    • How can we build stability into the system?
• Some subset or all plugins are already known
• Auto-download plugins when attempting to run a command
• Completions for subcommands
  • Are completions provided for commands not-yet-installed? Does attempting to complete a subcommand's commands install the plugin and process its completions?
• Will have configuration

Core functions

• What plugins are available to me?
  • HTTP GET (and cache?) some known human- and machine-readable manifest
    • JSON, YAML, Cue, or Ion?
• Install a plugin
  • HTTP GET
• Delete a plugin
  • rm -r dir
• Update self
  • download new binary and replace self with it
• Update plugin
  • replace plugin
• Run a plugin with some given arguments
  • call plugin with args

Components I See

• Core
  • Knows where to find manifest (may cache locally)
  • Installs, updates, deletes plugins using information in manifest
  • Can update or uninstall itself
  • Can run plugins
• Manifest
  • Contains information about where to find plugins and their versions
• Plugins
  • Probably dumb scripts that call fancier things