tern-plugin-base

a copyable foundation for tern plugins: package, config, and dev commands. the example logs a greeting on load.

start

copy or clone this folder. replace tern-plugin-base everywhere with your plugin id, replace the example with your feature, and update this readme and manifest.md. put your name in LICENSE, or pick another license.

just link

tern loads the checkout directly and reloads when package files change.

config

defaults live at the top of host.luau. to change them without editing code, create config.json in the plugin's data folder:

• macos: ~/Library/Application Support/Tern/plugin-data/tern-plugin-base/config.json
• linux: $XDG_STATE_HOME/tern/plugin-data/tern-plugin-base/config.json (default ~/.local/state/tern/...)
• windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Tern\plugin-data\tern-plugin-base\config.json
• with TERN_CONFIG_DIR set: $TERN_CONFIG_DIR/plugin-data/tern-plugin-base/config.json

example:

{ "greeting": "hi" }

missing file or key -> default. reinstall and update keep the file. after editing, run tern plugin reload.

develop

install tern, just, lua, luau-lsp, and stylua with luau support. run just for available commands.

just test
just lint
just fmt

no tests are included yet. lint generates current tern api types and checks plugin source; format covers lua/luau files. generated types are not committed.

just bump bumps patch; just bump minor and just bump major pick another part. only plugin.toml holds the version.

publish

keep plugin.toml at the repository root. users install with:

tern plugin install github.com/OWNER/REPO

use tern plugin install . for a local copy, and --force to update an installed copy. users only need tern.

agent files

optional, for plugins written mostly by ai coding agents. delete them if you do not need them.

• AGENTS.md: agent rules. points to the manifest, tern docs, and api types
• manifest.md: the shortest spec of the plugin: purpose, parts, key decisions. a human writes and approves it; agents check their work against it and ask before they change its core

license

mit-0: use, copy, and change freely. no need to keep the author name.