Chapter 15 — Plugins, Widgets, Marketplace

Plugins and widgets are how AidaIDE extends itself. A plugin can add menu items, feature tabs, LCOT command catalogues, theme files, chip libraries for the Hierarchy Builder, anything. Widgets are smaller, embedded UI components (a status badge, a chart, a quick-action button).

Under Tools → Plugins & Widgets:

Marketplace Store (Ctrl+Alt+M)
Plugin & Widget Manager (Ctrl+Alt+P)
Create New Plugin/Widget (Ctrl+Shift+K)
Widget Permissions
Widget Health Dashboard
Run Widget Tests

Marketplace Store

The hub for discovering and installing third-party (and Anthropic-published) plugins.

Layout:

Top: featured, new, popular.
Search box.
Categories: Themes, Chip Libraries, Connectors, Workflows, Tools.
Each plugin card shows name, author, version, install count, rating.

Click a card to see details: description, screenshots, permissions requested, dependencies, changelog.

Install downloads and unpacks into ~/.aidaide/plugins/<plugin-id>/. Restart is usually required for menu/toolbar changes; widgets and themes typically take effect immediately.

The installed-side companion to the Marketplace. Lists everything you have, whether enabled, version, and update availability.

Per-row controls:

Enable / Disable — toggle without uninstalling. Disabled plugins still occupy disk space; they just do not load.
Update — if a newer version is in the Marketplace.
Uninstall — removes the plugin directory.
Open in Editor — for plugin developers; jumps to the source.

Ctrl+Shift+K opens Create New Plugin/Widget — a scaffolder. Pick:

Plugin or Widget.
Language (Python is the default for AidaIDE plugins).
Template:
Plugin: adds menu items, feature tabs, LCOT catalogue, theme.
Widget: status badge, chart, table, custom panel.

Fill in metadata (name, id, author), click Generate, and the scaffold lands in your projects folder. Editing it live and reloading via Plugin Manager → Reload Plugin lets you iterate without restarting the whole IDE.

Plugin SDK docs live in ~/.aidaide/plugins/_sdk/README.md after install.

Widgets can request access to:

Network — outbound HTTP. Required for anything fetching data.
Filesystem read — your local files.
Filesystem write — modifying files.
Shell — running commands.
MCP — calling registered MCP servers.

Each capability is granted explicitly the first time the widget asks for it. The grants are persisted per widget in ~/.aidaide/widget_permissions.json and editable in Widget Permissions.

A status grid for installed widgets:

Last load time.
Last error (if any).
Memory footprint.
Per-widget action: Reload, Disable, Pin to toolbar.

Useful when something visually breaks. If a widget is causing the IDE to hang, Disable here unblocks the load path on next launch.

For plugin authors: runs the test harness against every installed widget. Reports pass/fail per widget with stack traces on failure.

Workflows

"I want a darker theme than the bundled ones"

Marketplace Store → search "theme."
Pick something dark.
Install.
Settings → Appearance → Theme → pick the new theme.

"I built a chip library for the Hierarchy Builder"

Scaffold a plugin with template "Chip Library."
Develop locally.
Package with aidaide-plugin pack (CLI tool installed with the SDK).
Submit to the Marketplace (or share the .plugin file directly).
After install, Hierarchy Builder → Refresh Library picks up the new chips.

"A plugin is making AidaIDE slow"

Widget Health Dashboard — sort by memory or load time.
If one widget is clearly bad, Disable it.
If you still feel sluggishness, Plugin Manager → Disable all third-party plugins, restart, re-enable one at a time.

Terms & Setup

Plugin — bigger, can add menus / tabs / catalogues / themes / chip libraries.
Widget — smaller, lives inside a panel. A clock, a metric, a button.

.plugin file

A zip with a manifest at the root. Easy to inspect and easy to ship. Drag a .plugin onto AidaIDE's main window to install.

Trusted authors

Marketplace plugins from listed authors install without per-install confirmation. Anthropic-published is trusted by default. Add your own teammates in Settings → Plugins → Trusted authors.

Permissions are real

A widget cannot read your filesystem, run shell, or hit the network unless you grant it. Treat permission prompts the way you would treat an iOS app asking for the camera — say no if the widget does not need the capability.

"Install failed: signature invalid"

Marketplace plugins are signed; an invalid signature means the package was tampered with or the publisher's key rotated. Re-download.

"I want to write a plugin but do not know where to start"

Ctrl+Shift+K → Plugin → "Hello World" template.
The generated README.md walks the API.
AidaIDE source is open-source friendly — the bundled built-in plugins are good examples (look in the SDK README for paths).

Updating plugins

Plugins do not auto-update. Plugin Manager shows a small icon next to anything with an update available. Click to update, then restart if asked.

Removing all plugins

Quit AidaIDE. Delete or rename ~/.aidaide/plugins/. Next launch starts with only the built-in features.

"The marketplace is empty / will not load"

Network — check Settings → Network → HTTP proxy if you are behind one.
AidaIDE may have flipped the marketplace URL during an update; Settings → Plugins → Marketplace URL has the default.
If you are running entirely offline, the marketplace is unreachable. Use .plugin files directly.

Chapter 15 — Plugins, Widgets, Marketplace

Menu layout