Cove Multi-Extension Template

Use this template when one repository owns multiple related Cove extensions. On GitHub, create new extension sets with the Use this template button.

After creating a repository from the template, replace the example extension IDs, namespaces, manifest fields, catalog entries, and workflow matrix values with your real extension set.

Extension metadata lives in extension.json

Each extension's extension.json is the single source of truth for its identity and metadata (id, name, version, description, author, url, categories, minCoveVersion, entryDll, dependencies). Do not redeclare any of these in C# — the example extensions extend CoveExtensionBase, which the host injects the parsed manifest into at load time and surfaces all of those values from it.

Implement whatever capability interfaces the extension needs alongside CoveExtensionBase and override only the methods you use:

using Cove.Plugins;
using Cove.Sdk;

// Scraper: keep the capability interface, drop all metadata properties.
public sealed class ExampleScraperExtension : CoveExtensionBase, IScraperProvider { /* ... */ }

// Downloader: same pattern.
public sealed class ExampleDownloaderExtension : CoveExtensionBase, IDownloaderProvider { /* ... */ }

// UI: CoveExtensionBase already implements IUIExtension; override GetUIManifest() to contribute UI.
public sealed class ExampleUiExtension : CoveExtensionBase { /* ... */ }

extensions/catalog.json lists every extension (id, path, tag prefix); scripts/validate-extension-repo.mjs checks the catalog and manifests stay consistent (including that each manifest's minCoveVersion is at least the repo's CoveMinVersion).

Build

dotnet build -c Release

Cove host references and central build wiring

The repo-root Directory.Build.props and Directory.Build.targets centralize all Cove host-contract wiring, so each .csproj stays minimal. Any project with an extension.json automatically references the Cove host contracts (Cove.Sdk + Cove.Core) compile-only — the host provides them (and the EF Core / Npgsql / Pgvector infrastructure) at runtime, so they are never shipped in the package.

• Local dev: if this repo is checked out beside cove (..\cove\src\Cove.Sdk / ..\cove\src\Cove.Core exist), UseLocalCoveSource and UseLocalCoveCore auto-enable and the projects reference the local Cove source via ProjectReference, so contract changes flow without a NuGet bump.
• CI / external authors: otherwise the projects use PackageReference to the published Cove.Sdk / Cove.Core packages at CoveSdkVersion / CoveCoreVersion (both default to CoveMinVersion).

Force package mode even with a sibling cove checkout present:

dotnet build -p:UseLocalCoveSource=false -p:UseLocalCoveCore=false

Release tags

Each extension has its own tag prefix:

• example-ui/v0.1.0
• example-downloader/v0.1.0
• example-scraper/v0.1.0

The CI workflow only packages the extension that matches the pushed tag.