civex-plugin-sdk

SDK for authoring out-of-process civex workflow plugins — subprocess-tier (uv run --script) and container-tier plugins that run as an isolated OS process/container and talk to the host over an RPC wire protocol, rather than importing into civex's own process.

Subclass Plugin, declare its metadata, implement invoke(), and call serve():

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# /// script
# requires-python = ">=3.10"
# dependencies = ["civex-plugin-sdk"]
# ///
from pydantic import BaseModel
from civex_plugin_sdk import Ctx, Plugin as PluginBase, serve


class Plugin(PluginBase):
    id = "my_project.compute_duration"   # must be unique; use a namespace prefix
    name = "Compute Duration"
    category = "transforms"              # informational only
    capabilities = ["get_context_record"]  # every ctx.* method this plugin calls

    class Config(BaseModel):
        start_field: str
        end_field: str

    def invoke(self, inputs: dict, config: Config, ctx: Ctx) -> dict:
        record = ctx.get_context_record()
        start = record["data"].get(config.start_field, 0)
        end = record["data"].get(config.end_field, 0)
        return {"duration": end - start}


if __name__ == "__main__":
    serve(Plugin)

Drop the file in _civex/plugins/ in a civex project and it's discovered automatically. See Writing a plugin for the full authoring guide (the Ctx API, isolation/timeouts, constraints), Container plugins for the Tier 2 path, and the SDK reference for the complete public API.

Installing

pip install civex-plugin-sdk          # or: uv add civex-plugin-sdk
pip install "civex-plugin-sdk[table]" # adds pandas for `table`-typed inputs/outputs

In a plugin script the PEP 723 header is all you need — uv run resolves it. When civex runs the plugin it pins the SDK to the version civex itself uses, so you don't pin it yourself.

Versioning

The SDK's version comes from sdk-vX.Y.Z git tags (setuptools-scm) — there is no version written in pyproject.toml. civex's own vX.Y.Z tags are a separate namespace. A build between tags is X.Y.Z.postN; only a tagged commit produces a plain release version. requires-python is >=3.10, looser than civex's own >=3.12, since plugins run in their own subprocess/container environment independent of the host's interpreter.

The wire protocol has its own number, civex_plugin_sdk.PROTOCOL_VERSION, which changes only for breaking wire changes; civex refuses a plugin whose protocol it doesn't speak. Release notes are in CHANGELOG.md in the source distribution.

License

MIT — the full text ships in the package as LICENSE. (The civex application itself is under a different license.)