browser/openspec/changes/implement-plugin-registry-and-manifest-validation/proposal.md

Why

Plugin installability is now the next platform dependency: server creation, plugin marketplace display, and plugin bridge work all need a trusted registry of game management plugin manifests. This change adds the manifest validation and registry surface so only safe, well-formed plugins become available to the platform.

What Changes

• Define the first plugin manifest contract for game management plugins, including identity, server type, create form schema, lifecycle actions, run capabilities, UI contribution, and scoped permissions.
• Add manifest validation in plugins/ with schema fixtures and tests for valid and unsafe manifests.
• Add platform domain, repository, service, DTO, validator, and API handling for registering, listing, and inspecting installed plugin metadata.
• Reject or disable unsafe manifest requests such as raw host paths, direct run sockets, raw credentials, or raw AI provider keys.
• Keep plugin marketplace metadata focused on game server management plugins, not billing, cloud host sales, or unrelated SaaS marketplace features.

Capabilities

New Capabilities

• plugin-registry-and-manifest-validation: Validates game management plugin manifests and exposes installed plugin registry metadata through platform APIs.

Modified Capabilities

• None. This change builds on the bootstrap plugin and platform-core constraints, which have not yet been archived into openspec/specs/.

Impact

• Affects plugins/ manifest schemas, fixtures, SDK-adjacent types, and validation tests.
• Affects platform/ plugin domain, DTOs, models, repositories, services, validators, routes, and API tests.
• Adds or updates verification commands for plugin schema tests, platform API tests, scripts/check-structure.sh, and strict OpenSpec validation.