Plugins overview

“Plugins” in Pylon means two concrete things. Neither is a manifest.plugins: [...] list. There is no such array today.

TS packages (@pylonsync/*): installable npm packages that return a manifest fragment (entities, actions, queries, policies) plus handler factories. You compose the fragment into your buildManifest() call. Use these to add features the framework binary does not already cover.
Built-in runtime plugins: a small set compiled into the pylon binary and wired automatically from your schema or environment. You do not name them anywhere. They activate when the relevant signal is present (a tenantId field, a .owner() annotation, an env var).

Features that are built into the framework binary already (no package, no plugin needed):

API keys: /api/auth/api-keys routes for mint / list / revoke. See Auth → API keys.
TOTP / 2FA: /api/auth/totp/* routes for enroll / verify / disable + backup codes. See Auth → TOTP.
Transactional email: PYLON_EMAIL_PROVIDER env (sendgrid / resend / stack0 / webhook) + ctx.email.send(). See Integrations → email.
Audit log: /api/auth/audit + /api/auth/audit/tenant routes.
Organizations: Org / OrgMember / OrgInvite entities + /api/auth/orgs/* routes. See Auth → Organizations.

TS packages

Install with bun add, then spread the manifest fragment into buildManifest():

Package	Purpose
@pylonsync/stripe	Declarative billing — plans, checkout, portal, cancel/restore, signature-verified webhook, subscription entity.
@pylonsync/feature-flags	Local-eval flags — boolean + multivariate, percentage rollouts, targeting predicates, per-variant JSON payloads.
@pylonsync/webhooks	Outbound webhook delivery — Svix-compatible HMAC signatures, retry schedule, secret rotation.

Each package exports a factory (e.g. stripe({...}), webhooks({...})) that returns { manifest, handlers, ... }. Pylon loads function handlers one-per-file, so you also add one-line wrapper files under functions/. See each package’s page for the exact list.

Built-in runtime plugins

These live in crates/plugin/src/builtin/. The runtime registers them at boot. They are auto-wired, not enabled through a manifest list.

Built-in	How it turns on	Reference
`tenant_scope`	Automatic on any entity with a `tenantId` field	Data hygiene
`owner_stamp`	Automatic on any field declared `field.X().owner()`	Data hygiene
`rate_limit`	Always on; tuned via `PYLON_RATE_LIMIT_MAX*` env	Security
`csrf`	Always on; allowlist from `manifest.auth.trustedOrigins` / env	Security
LLM proxy (`ai_proxy`)	Env-configured; powers `/api/llm/complete`, `/api/ai/stream`, `ctx.llm`	Search & AI
In-process cache	Internal; backs SSR / ISR response caching	—

How built-ins hook in

Built-ins observe the request and data path at fixed points. The exact Rust hooks (see Writing your own):

HTTP request
     │
     ▼
   on_request ──── rate_limit (reject if over budget)
     │       ──── csrf (origin check on cookie-authed writes)
     │
     ▼
   entity write (insert / update / delete)
     │   ──── before_insert / before_update / before_delete
     │        (tenant_scope injects + validates tenantId;
     │         owner_stamp stamps ownerId from the session)
     │
     ▼
   after_insert / after_update / after_delete

A built-in can inspect or reject a request (on_request), mutate or reject a write (before_*), react after a write lands (after_*), add HTTP routes (routes()), or contribute manifest entities (entities()).

There is no `plugins: []` array

Older drafts of these docs described enabling plugins through a pylon.manifest.json plugins list with per-plugin config. That mechanism does not exist. Built-ins are automatic. You influence them through your schema (add a tenantId field, annotate a field .owner()) and environment variables. App-specific cross-cutting logic goes in server functions and policies, not a plugin config block. pylon plugins list prints a roadmap catalog of plugin names (validation, slugify, versioning, cascade, MCP, and more). These are planned, not installable today. Treat the list as a preview, not an API.

Plugins vs functions

Plugins / built-ins	Functions
Implicit — fire on every relevant op	Explicit — called by name
Auto-wired from schema/env, or composed from a TS package	Defined in TS files under `functions/`
Can mutate data in-flight (built-ins)	Run inside a transaction; return a result
Cross-cutting concerns (tenant scope, owner stamp, rate limit)	Business logic
Compiled into the binary, or shipped as a package	Hot-reloaded by the dev server

Use a built-in when the behavior applies to every call. Use a function when callers opt in by name.

Writing your own

There is no dynamic plugin loading yet. Add a Rust built-in through a custom runtime; use functions and policies for TypeScript logic. The SDK ships a definePlugin({ name, entities, hooks }) helper, but the runtime does not consume its output yet. See Writing your own plugin for the current extension points.

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Core concepts

SSR

Auth

Plugins

Clients

Operations

Compare

Migrate

Plugins overview

TS packages

Built-in runtime plugins

How built-ins hook in

There is no `plugins: []` array

Plugins vs functions

Writing your own

​TS packages

​Built-in runtime plugins

​How built-ins hook in

​There is no plugins: [] array

​Plugins vs functions

​Writing your own

TS packages

Built-in runtime plugins

How built-ins hook in

There is no `plugins: []` array

Plugins vs functions

Writing your own