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Create and run plugin-based command-line tools.

Quickstart

This section shows how to start prototyping plugins on your local machine. See the sections below to learn how to distribute your commands as remote plugins that can be installed and updated from Git repositories.

Create a new local plugin:

multitool plugins new test

Show the generated command help:

multitool run test hello --help

Run the example command:

multitool run test hello \
    "Hello, World!" \
    --count 3 \
    --format json \
    -vv \
    --enabled \
    --tag alpha \
    --tag beta

Edit the generated source code:

vim ~/.multitool/plugins/test/plugin_*.py

Usage

Usage: multitool [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Create and run plugin-based command-line tools.

Options:
  -V, --version  Show the version and exit.
  -h, --help     Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  bootstrap  Create the directory structure for a new Python package...
  plugins    Manage plugin repositories.
  run        Run installed plugin commands.

Managing plugins

Plugins are distributed as Git repositories containing Click commands.

The plugins command manages plugin repositories, while installed plugin commands are available under multitool run.

Git is required to install or update plugins. If Git is unavailable, the plugins command cannot install repositories, although plugins can still be installed manually by copying them into:

~/.multitool/plugins/PLUGIN_NAME/

Creating plugins

Create a new plugin scaffold with:

multitool plugins new PLUGIN_NAME

This creates a local plugin repository under:

~/.multitool/plugins/PLUGIN_NAME/

The generated structure includes:

PLUGIN_NAME/
├── __init__.py
├── plugin_<unique-id>.py
├── multitool-info.json
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

The generated plugin contains a Click command group named PLUGIN_NAME and an example hello command. Add additional commands to the generated plugin_<unique-id>.py module.

Test the plugin locally with:

multitool run PLUGIN_NAME -h

To distribute the plugin:

  1. Initialize the plugin directory as a Git repository:

    cd ~/.multitool/plugins/PLUGIN_NAME
    git init
  2. Commit and push it to a remote Git repository such as GitHub or GitLab.

  3. Add the repository URL to the Multitool configuration:

    [sources]
    PLUGIN_NAME = https://github.com/<user>/PLUGIN_NAME.git
  4. Install or update plugins:

    multitool plugins update

Alternatively, copy the plugin directory directly into another Multitool plugins directory to use it locally.

Configuring

Add a plugin repository with:

multitool plugins add https://github.com/mdelotavo/multitool-plugins.git

By default, the repository name is used as the source key. To specify your own key:

multitool plugins add https://github.com/mdelotavo/multitool-plugins.git --key example

Remove a configured plugin source by key or URL:

multitool plugins remove multitool-plugins

multitool plugins remove https://github.com/mdelotavo/multitool-plugins.git

Apply configuration changes (install new plugins and update existing plugins) with:

multitool plugins update

For bulk edits, you can edit the configuration file directly:

multitool plugins configure

To automatically apply configuration changes after saving and closing the file (install new plugins, update existing plugins, and prune removed plugins), use:

multitool plugins configure -a

Example configuration:

[sources]
multitool-plugins = https://github.com/mdelotavo/multitool-plugins.git

Configured repositories are cloned into:

~/.multitool/plugins/

Multiple repositories may be configured as long as each source key is unique.

Installing

Install the example plugins:

multitool plugins add https://github.com/mdelotavo/multitool-plugins.git

multitool plugins update

multitool plugins show
multitool plugins show -n multitool-plugins
multitool plugins show -n multitool-plugins --show-commit-only
multitool plugins show -n multitool-plugins --show-dependencies-only

multitool run examples -h

Updating

Install new plugins, update existing ones, and automatically install any Python dependencies declared in the Requires field of the plugin’s multitool-info.json file:

multitool plugins update

Update a specific plugin only:

multitool plugins update -n PLUGIN_NAME

The Requires field is where a plugin declares the Python packages it depends on. Any packages listed will be installed automatically when multitool plugins update is run. For example:

{
  "Homepage": "",
  "Requires": "click>=8.1.3 click-aliases>=1.0.1 click-option-group>=0.5.5 GitPython>=3.1.30",
  "Maintainer": "",
  "Description-en": ""
}

If one or more dependencies could not be installed automatically, multitool will report the failures and display the appropriate pip command to install the remaining packages manually. For example:

Updating plugins
----------------
Updating multitool-plugins... Done
Updating test... Skipped Git pull (not a Git repository)

Checking Python package dependencies
------------------------------------
Checked GitPython (GitPython>=3.1.30)... 3.1.50 installed
Installing asdfasdfasdf... Failed
Checked click-aliases (click-aliases>=1.0.1)... 1.0.1 installed
Checked click-option-group (click-option-group>=0.5.5)... 0.5.5 installed
Checked click (click>=8.1.3)... 8.1.8 installed
Installing qwerqwerqwer>=8.1.3... Failed
Checked tabulate (tabulate)... 0.9.0 installed

The following dependencies could not be installed automatically:
  asdfasdfasdf
  qwerqwerqwer>=8.1.3

Try installing them manually:
  /usr/bin/python3 -m pip install asdfasdfasdf qwerqwerqwer>=8.1.3

You can also display a plugin’s declared dependencies at any time:

multitool plugins show --name PLUGIN_NAME --show-dependencies-only

Pruning

To uninstall a plugin repository, first remove it from the configured sources:

multitool plugins remove multitool-plugins

Then remove any local repositories that are no longer configured:

multitool plugins prune

Alternatively, running:

multitool plugins configure -a

automatically prunes repositories removed from the configuration.

Showing

Show configured repositories:

multitool plugins show

Or inspect a specific repository:

multitool plugins show -n PLUGIN_NAME --show-commit-only
multitool plugins show -n PLUGIN_NAME --show-dependencies-only

Troubleshooting

If a plugin fails to install or load, check the log file:

~/.multitool/multitool.log

It contains installation, dependency, and Git-related errors.

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