yoi/work-items/open/20260603-122317-plugin-feature-contribution-registry/item.md

id: 20260603-122317-plugin-feature-contribution-registry slug: plugin-feature-contribution-registry title: Plugin: feature contribution registry for built-in and external capabilities status: open kind: feature priority: P1 labels: [plugin, registry, tools, hooks, orchestration] created_at: 2026-06-03T12:23:17Z updated_at: 2026-06-04T21:08:33Z assignee: null legacy_ticket: null

Issue

Yoi already has many capability surfaces: built-in tools, memory tools, Pod management tools, manifest permission hooks, workflow assets, notifications, and planned WorkItem / MCP / plugin features. If new features keep registering themselves through ad hoc Pod/Worker code paths, Plugin system work will not produce a single management boundary and later features such as WorkItem intake will be hard to detach.

The immediate need is not package distribution or WASM execution. The immediate need is a runtime feature contribution registry that lets built-in features and future external plugins contribute through the same existing host surfaces: Tools, Hooks, host-managed BackgroundTasks, host-mediated Services, and durable notification/history plus alert/diagnostic paths.

Direction

Introduce a feature registry boundary for Pod runtime capability installation.

• Feature state remains owned by the feature/extension module, not by Pod history or prompt context.
• Pod interaction happens through existing surfaces:
  • Tool contributions registered into the normal ToolRegistry / permission / history path.
  • Hook contributions registered through the public Pod Hook boundary.
  • BackgroundTask contributions are host-managed for async feature work; feature modules must not create untracked runtime loops.
  • Service provider/consumer contributions allow a feature/plugin to expose a narrow public API and another feature/plugin to acquire it through host dependency resolution and capability grants.
  • Model-visible notifications use the existing durable Notify / SystemItem / Event::SystemItem path rather than invisible context injection.
  • Transient human-facing alerts and diagnostics are separate host-defined outputs, not arbitrary plugin UI channels.
• The registry is responsible for discovery/enablement diagnostics and installation into existing surfaces; it must not create a parallel execution path.
• Built-in features should be expressible as feature contributions first. External plugin runtimes can be added later.

Placement note

The runtime registry should initially live in the Pod layer, e.g. crates/pod/src/feature.rs or an equivalent module, because installation requires access to Worker tool registration, Pod Hook registry setup, manifest/profile-resolved policy, notification buffers, and Pod event bridges.

Pure descriptor types may later move to a separate plugin / extension crate if needed, but descriptor types must not depend on Pod internals.

Requirements

• Define feature identity/source/runtime metadata for at least built-in features and future user/project plugins.
  • Example sources: builtin, user, project.
  • Example runtime kinds: builtin, declarative, mcp bridge future, wasm future.
• Define contribution descriptors or install abstractions for:
  • Tools
  • Hooks
  • BackgroundTasks
  • Service providers and service requirements
  • Model-visible notification, transient alert, and diagnostic capabilities where needed
• Define capability request / host grant data structures suitable for policy diagnostics.
• Add a registry/builder/install context that can install enabled feature contributions into existing Pod/Worker surfaces.
• Preserve current behavior while moving registration toward the registry.
  • Existing built-in tool registration must still work.
  • Existing manifest permission hook behavior must still work.
  • Existing notification/history invariants must still hold.
• Keep model-visible plugin/feature output on durable paths: tool result, committed history, or explicit notification/history append paths.
• Do not let feature contributions mutate session history, memory, prompt context, or scope outside approved host APIs.
• Document how WorkItem tools should become a built-in feature contribution rather than a special Pod context path.

Non-goals

• Implementing WASM execution.
• Implementing plugin package discovery or archive validation.
• Implementing MCP itself.
• Implementing WorkItem management tools.
• Adding UI/TUI rendering plugins.
• Auto-enabling user/project plugins.

Suggested phases

1. Registry design
   • Define feature descriptor, source, runtime kind, contribution kinds, capability request/grant, and diagnostics.
2. Pod runtime registry skeleton
   • Add a Pod-layer feature registry/builder and install context.
   • Keep behavior unchanged initially.
3. Builtin registration migration
   • Move a small, low-risk built-in feature group through the registry first.
   • Then migrate built-in tool groups / memory / Pod-management registration as appropriate.
4. Hook integration
   • Integrate only after hook-public-surface-hardening establishes a safe public Hook action surface.
5. Follow-up alignment
   • Update WorkItem, MCP, and plugin distribution tickets to depend on this registry boundary where they contribute capabilities.

Acceptance criteria

• The codebase has a first-class feature contribution registry boundary for Pod runtime installation.
• At least one built-in capability group is registered through the new registry without changing behavior.
• The registry can describe Tool, Hook, BackgroundTask, and Service provider/requirement contributions and records source/runtime/capability diagnostics.
• Feature installation uses existing ToolRegistry, HookRegistry, host-managed BackgroundTask lifecycle, host-mediated Service resolution, and notification/history paths; no parallel Pod context injection path or arbitrary plugin UI channel is introduced.
• WorkItem and MCP follow-up tickets can target this registry instead of adding ad hoc registration code.
• Focused tests cover the migrated built-in registration and capability/diagnostic behavior.