Getting Started

Most projects should start from the official template: vdl-plugin-template

If you are setting up from scratch:

npm install --save-dev --save-exact @varavel/vdl-plugin-sdk@latest

Quick start

Create src/index.ts:

import { definePlugin } from "@varavel/vdl-plugin-sdk";

export const generate = definePlugin((input) => {
  // Useful input fields:
  console.log(input.version); // VDL version (without the "v" prefix)
  console.log(input.options); // Plugin options from vdl.config.vdl
  console.log(input.ir); // Typed VDL intermediate representation

  return {
    files: [
      {
        path: "hello.txt",
        content: "Hello from VDL Plugin SDK",
      },
    ],
  };
});

Run:

npx vdl-plugin check
npx vdl-plugin build

• check: type-checks plugin code.
• build: bundles src/index.ts into dist/index.js.

Typical plugin workflow

1. Implement your plugin in src/index.ts with @varavel/vdl-plugin-sdk.
2. Use helpers from @varavel/vdl-plugin-sdk/utils/<category> as needed.
3. Add unit tests using @varavel/vdl-plugin-sdk/testing.
4. Run vdl-plugin check during development to ensure type safety.
5. Run vdl-plugin build to produce dist/index.js.
6. Commit dist/index.js and publish a new release tag.

VDL consumes the built dist/index.js artifact, not your TypeScript source.

Example package.json scripts:

{
  "scripts": {
    "check": "vdl-plugin check",
    "build": "vdl-plugin build"
  }
}

Next steps

• Learn the entry points for runtime, utils, and testing imports.
• Learn the CLI options for custom entry and output paths.
• Browse the API reference when you need exact types and helpers.