Tooling for Plugin Development

While plugins can be developed with raw JavaScript - Caido offers plugin starterkits, preassembled packages that also provide tooling to assist in development.

The frontend starterkit can be found here.

Package Management

Caido utilizes the Performant Node Package Manager(a.k.a. pnpm) for plugin package management. You have a couple choices of package management (npm, yarn, pnpm, etc.) - we chose pnpm. Plugins do not have dependencies, they are self contained. The Javascript dependencies are bundled into them.

The files related to package management within the starterkit repository are:

• package.json: This is the main configuration file for the package as a whole - it contains the project metadata and specifies the required dependencies to be used at runtime/build time. View the pnpm package.json documentation for more information.
• pnpm-lock.yaml: This file ensures the same versions of dependencies are installed with every installation. View the pnpm-lock.yaml documentation for more information.

TypeScript

Externally, TypeScript is used by Caido for the starterkit package.

The file related to TypeScript within the starterkit repository is:

• tsconfig.json: This file provides instructions to the compiler when TypeScript is converted to JS. View the https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/tsconfig-json.html documentation for more information.

Build Tool

Once the package is developed, the code is processed by the Vite build tool. In general, a build tool automates the process of compiling, testing and packaging code into a deployable package - ensuring the plugin is ready for use and sharing.

The file related to the Vite build tool within the starterkit repository is:

• vite.config.ts: This file is a configuration file for customizing the build process. View the vite.config.js documentation for more information.