A plugin-API seam surfaced by building 33 out-of-tree plugins on the #206 loader (report). Lower-demand than the four ranked seams (#601–#604), but it is the single blocker for an honest read-only ops/status console — see "why now" below.
The gap
A plugin cannot ask what else is loaded. The loader already holds the entry list (id, prefix, module) but exposes none of it on the api object. So the one kind of plugin whose whole job is describing the deployment has to be hand-fed a duplicate of the createServer({ plugins }) array, and the two silently drift — an added plugin never appears, a removed one keeps getting probed, and the default "<500 = alive" rule reports the stale entry as healthy.
Consumers
dashboard/ (first live consumer) — a live plugin-status page. Today it takes a config.plugins array that must mirror the real loader list by hand.admin/ — the operator home; same hand-copied inventory.
Concrete evidence: the demo composition (serve.js) now maintains a single INVENTORY array beside the real plugins array and feeds it to both — a workaround that exists only because the introspection seam is missing.
Sketch
api.plugins // → [{ id, prefix, module }], read-onlyA frozen snapshot of the loaded entries (not the config objects — no secrets). Optionally a per-entry health/probe hint later, but the minimal { id, prefix, module } is enough to de-fiction the dashboard.
Cost
Small — the loader constructs this list at boot; this is a read-only view onto data it already has.
Not to be confused with (distinct, adjacent issues)
Why now
This is the phase-1 blocker for a blessed read-only status console for JSS. dashboard/ is read-only and probes anonymously (a 401 counts as "alive"), so it needs no operator/auth seam — only this one, to stop the inventory being a hand-maintained fiction. With api.plugins landed, dashboard/ becomes a faithful, self-maintaining status page worth shipping as an official plugin. (The richer admin/ console — pod stats + an operator gate — is a later phase that additionally needs an operator-identity seam.)
A plugin-API seam surfaced by building 33 out-of-tree plugins on the #206 loader (report). Lower-demand than the four ranked seams (#601–#604), but it is the single blocker for an honest read-only ops/status console — see "why now" below.
The gap
A plugin cannot ask what else is loaded. The loader already holds the entry list (id, prefix, module) but exposes none of it on the
apiobject. So the one kind of plugin whose whole job is describing the deployment has to be hand-fed a duplicate of thecreateServer({ plugins })array, and the two silently drift — an added plugin never appears, a removed one keeps getting probed, and the default "<500 = alive" rule reports the stale entry as healthy.Consumers
dashboard/(first live consumer) — a live plugin-status page. Today it takes aconfig.pluginsarray that must mirror the real loader list by hand.admin/— the operator home; same hand-copied inventory.Concrete evidence: the demo composition (
serve.js) now maintains a singleINVENTORYarray beside the realpluginsarray and feeds it to both — a workaround that exists only because the introspection seam is missing.Sketch
A frozen snapshot of the loaded entries (not the config objects — no secrets). Optionally a per-entry
health/probehint later, but the minimal{ id, prefix, module }is enough to de-fiction the dashboard.Cost
Small — the loader constructs this list at boot; this is a read-only view onto data it already has.
Not to be confused with (distinct, adjacent issues)
api.pluginsis the minimal loader primitive that such a feature could be built on top of — not a replacement for it.api.pluginsis pure introspection of already-loaded plugins — no install, no fetch, no network.Why now
This is the phase-1 blocker for a blessed read-only status console for JSS.
dashboard/is read-only and probes anonymously (a 401 counts as "alive"), so it needs no operator/auth seam — only this one, to stop the inventory being a hand-maintained fiction. Withapi.pluginslanded,dashboard/becomes a faithful, self-maintaining status page worth shipping as an official plugin. (The richeradmin/console — pod stats + an operator gate — is a later phase that additionally needs an operator-identity seam.)