Addon System

Basics

• There are currently only two types of addons: plugins and themes.
• Distributed addons are limited to a single file.
• The distributed file must be named in the form <name>.<type>.<ext> where name is the addon name, type is the addon type, and ext is the standard file extension.
• Addon files are split into two major sections, the meta and the body.
• Meta sections (described more below) contain important information about the addon for BetterDiscord, the body section is the main portion of developer content.
• Addons are dynamically added, removed, and updated to match the files on the users' system.

Details

Meta

The meta of an addon contains metadata about the addon as the name would suggest. The format of this meta is a JSDoc style comment at the very beginning of the file. Not having this at the beginning can cause BetterDiscord to not load the addon. A minimal meta header would look something like this:

/**
 * @name ExampleAddon
 * @author YourName
 * @description Describe the basic information. Maybe a support server link.
 * @version 0.0.1
 */

And a fully filled out meta using all the fields would look something like this:

/**
 * @name ExampleAddon
 * @author YourName
 * @description Describe the basic information. Maybe a support server link.
 * @version 0.0.1
 * @invite inviteCode
 * @authorId 51512151151651
 * @authorLink https://twitter.com/Whoever
 * @donate https://paypal.me/
 * @patreon https://patreon.com/
 * @website https://github.com/BetterDiscord/BetterDiscord
 * @source https://gist.github.com/rauenzi/e5f4d02fc3085a53872b0236cd6f8225
 */

Please see the table below for details on the fields.

Field	Required	Description
name	✅	The name of the addon. Typcially does not contain spaces, but is allowed.
author	✅	The name of you the developer.
description	✅	A basic description of the what the addon does.
version	✅	Version representing the current update level. Semantic versioning recommended.
invite	❌	A Discord invite code, useful for directing users to a support server.
authorId	❌	Discord snowflake ID of the developer. This allows users to get in touch.
authorLink	❌	Link to use for the author's name on the addon pages.
donate	❌	Link to donate to the developer.
patreon	❌	Link to the patreon of the developer.
website	❌	Developer's (or addon's) website link.
source	❌	Link to the source on GitHub of the addon.

Body

This is the part of the addon that varies based on the type. For more information on this section, view the specific guides for plugin and theme development.