better plugin distribution

[rmmh]

There should be a way to add/remove plugins without forking skybot. Most people don't need to modify the core, but do want to customize the commands.

Git submodules + host them in gists?

[ednos]

Just being able to throw an URL to a Git repository (or a gist) into a list in the configuration would be fantastic. It'd also be great to set a refresh time for checking for updates, and reloading plugins automatically if an update occurred. Can plugins currently be added and removed while skybot is running?

(I mean, or just have a plugin per directory in the plugins folder, and manage plugins your damn self, et cetera.)

[rmmh]

I'm slightly wary about automatically updating plugins from a gist url -- far too easy to make a bot do something malicious.

Skybot supports hot plugin reloading.

A directory in plugins/ for each additional source would work nicely. Configuration wouldn't necessarily have to be through config.json. A central repo (skybot-plugins) with a bunch of submodule pointers to 'known-good' plugins that a manager can install from is one possibility.

[avidal]

👍 on skybot-plugins as a registry. Submodules to known-good/vetted plugins on github.

Then the plugin list can be:

• plugin-name, which is fetched from the skybot-plugins/:plugin
• author/plugin, which is fetched from github.com/:author/:plugin

But at which point is it turning what should be a simple bot into A Real Thing? Does skybot itself have a plugin install | update | remove subcommand? Are they git submodules or subtrees or just a download/extract of the tarball? What if the skybot "install" isn't from a git clone?