Fold ctx.notifyNative into a ctx.os namespace so every way a plugin
reaches outside the app window lives behind one attributed door instead
of accreting one top-level ctx method per capability:
- ctx.os.notify — the native-notification door from the previous commit,
unchanged semantics (plugin kind pref, away-gating, per-plugin throttle).
- ctx.os.openExternal / ctx.os.revealPath / ctx.os.writeClipboard — the
existing window.hermesDesktop bridge capabilities, now sanctioned and
result-shaped: each resolves false (never throws) when the bridge or
member is missing, so a plugin branches on the result instead of
sniffing the preload surface or crashing on an older shell.
No new Electron surface: everything routes through bridge members the
app already ships; the notification path keeps every existing gate.
Desktop plugins can toast in-app (host.notify) but have no sanctioned way to
reach the OS notification pipeline the app's own approval/turn alerts use, so
a plugin surfacing a genuinely notable background event (e.g. a discovery
plugin finding a match) stays invisible once the user steps away from Hermes.
Add a curated per-plugin door instead of exporting the raw dispatcher:
- ctx.notifyNative({ title, body?, silent? }) on PluginContext — attributed
to the plugin id, routed through dispatchNativeNotification so every
existing gate applies (master + per-kind prefs, post-connect baseline,
away-from-app gating, throttle).
- New 'plugin' native-notification kind with its own Settings ▸ Notifications
toggle (default on), so users silence plugins without losing app alerts.
- New optional `tag` discriminator on the notify payload keys the renderer
throttle and main-process cross-window dedupe per plugin, so two plugins
can't collapse each other's session-less notifications.
Consumer: the Index Network desktop plugin wants background opportunity
alerts; anything in ~/.hermes/desktop-plugins gets the same door.
Add an end-to-end developer guide for extending the native Hermes Desktop
app introduced in #60638: the HermesPlugin contract, PluginContext, every
contribution area (panes, routes, sidebar nav, status/title bar, palette,
keybinds, themes, composer, mount-scoped Contribute), the host API, the
React Query + nanostores data layer, the UI kit + theme variables, the
scoped ctx.rest/ctx.socket backend (plugin_api.py under /api/plugins/<id>)
and its separate enable gate, Settings/defaultEnabled/storage, bundled
plugins, the security model, pitfalls, and a full reference.
- Register the page in the sidebar under Extending -> Plugins.
- Disambiguate from the unrelated web-dashboard plugin SDK from both
directions, and add a map-table row + a desktop user-guide pointer.
- Fill the gaps in the agent-facing hermes-desktop-plugins skill
(ctx.rest/socket + backend, React Query, defaultEnabled, Contribute)
and point it at the new reference so agents know the SDK when writing
addons.
Brooklyn Nicholson
seref