Manifest and Capabilities

Every community plugin needs a manifest.json at the plugin root.

Manifest Shape

{	"id": "example-plugin",	"name": "Example Plugin",	"version": "0.1.0",	"minAppVersion": "0.1.0",	"author": "Your Name",	"authorUrl": "https://example.com",	"description": "Adds a sample command and sidebar view.",	"icon": "puzzle",	"main": "dist/index.js",	"capabilities": ["commands", "ui:views", "ui:sidebar"]}

Field	Required	Notes
id	Yes	Stable id unique inside a vault. Reviewed listings must match this id.
name	Yes	User-facing name.
version	Yes	Use semver for update comparisons.
minAppVersion	Yes	Minimum Cortex version the plugin expects.
author	Yes	Displayed in plugin and reviewed listing surfaces.
authorUrl	No	Public URL for the author or organization.
description	Yes	Short install/review summary.
icon	Yes	Lucide icon name or host-supported icon identifier.
main	Yes	Safe relative path to the plugin bundle.
capabilities	No	Required before guarded API calls work.

Capability Reference

Capability	Enables
commands	api.commands.register, api.commands.execute, command palette, hotkeys, Vim names.
settings	Plugin settings storage, schemas, settings tabs, and onChange listeners.
vault:read	Vault path, file reads, file listings, exists, metadata reads, and tag reads.
vault:write	Writing text files in the active vault.
vault:delete	Deleting files from the active vault.
vault:watch	Subscribing to vault file events.
editor:read	Active file path and active editor content reads.
editor:write	Cursor insertion and selection replacement.
editor:extensions	Host-specific editor extensions.
editor:folding	Portable line-based fold providers.
markdown:extensions	Inline, semantic, callout, preprocessor, processor, and plugin styles.css support.
properties:types	Custom note property type registration.
ui:views	Declarative host-rendered views.
ui:sidebar	Sidebar items that open registered views.
ui:statusbar	Status bar items.
ui:contextmenu	File, editor, and tab context menu items.
ui:modals	Opening and closing registered modal views.
workspace:tabs	Opening files, views, and temporary Markdown tabs.
theme:read	Active theme name and theme change subscriptions.
bookmarks:read	Bookmark list, lookup, and change subscriptions.
bookmarks:write	Add, remove, and toggle bookmarks.
data	Plugin-owned data files.
notifications	Native notifications and lightweight notices.

Best Practices

• Request the narrowest capabilities you need.
• Treat capabilities as user-visible permissions.
• Do not call APIs defensively and ignore capability failures. Declare the capability or remove the feature.
• Use local ids for plugin commands, views, settings, and context menu items. Cortex prefixes where global uniqueness is needed.