Add features with plugins

Plugins add features to Yardmaster. Four come with the app, and you turn each one on yourself: Foundry (write a product spec with AI), RepoGuard (a security checkup for your code), Daily Spend Report and Virtual Pets (a little animal that walks around your window).

Turn a plugin on or off#

1. 1

   Open Settings > Plugins.

2. 2

   Find the plugin's card. Built-in means it came with Yardmaster.

3. 3

   Flip its switch on. A plugin with its own screen gets an entry in the sidebar.

4. 4

   To change how it works, open Plugin Settings on the card.

To turn a plugin off, flip the same switch. Its sidebar entry goes away, and the plugin stops running.

What a plugin can do#

Built-in plugins turn on without asking. A Marketplace plugin shows its permissions on its page before you click Install, and installing counts as agreeing to them. If a later version asks for more, Yardmaster asks again (Grant & Enable), and until then its card shows Needs your permission with a Re-approve button.

Some Marketplace plugins also bring a background part that runs on its own with full access to your computer (your files, your programs and the internet), and Yardmaster cannot check what it does. Installing such a plugin lets that part run. Built-in plugins are not affected.

Allow unverified plugin backends (off at first) does not stop a plugin you installed, and neither does turning off the plugin's own Backend access switch on its Marketplace card: Yardmaster turns that switch back on the next time it starts. To be sure a background part never runs again, uninstall the plugin.

Does a plugin cost money?#

Only through the AI it uses:

• Foundry runs a Claude session for each step of the interview, on your Claude plan, and makes a small AI call to name each plan, which also costs money.

• RepoGuard reads your code with a small Claude model billed to your Anthropic API key, and its Fix Issues button starts a Claude session.

• Daily Spend Report and Virtual Pets use no AI.

Use the Marketplace#

The Marketplace is a catalog of plugins made by other people. Open System > Marketplace in the sidebar (it is on unless you turned off Enable Marketplace in Settings > Optional Features).

The Marketplace currently has no plugins: it shows No plugins available yet. The plugins that come with Yardmaster are in Settings > Plugins instead.

When it has plugins, you open one to see its permissions and reviews, then click Install. Update is on the same page.

To remove a Marketplace plugin, open its page or card, click Uninstall and confirm. Uninstalling deletes the plugin's files and cancels any Google or GitHub access it was given. Built-in plugins cannot be uninstalled; switch them off instead.

A plugin you installed that the Marketplace no longer lists (it was taken out, or you installed it yourself) stays installed and keeps working. Its card in Settings > Plugins says No longer listed and has a Remove button. Remove asks first, with Keep it selected, and only then deletes the plugin's files.

If the Marketplace withdraws a plugin for safety, Yardmaster switches your copy off the next time it checks the Marketplace: the plugin and its background part stop. Nothing is deleted. Its card says Switched off: withdrawn for your safety with the reason, it cannot be switched back on, and one note in your Inbox tells you. You can still remove it with Remove.

Who checks Marketplace plugins?#

The Yardmaster team does. When someone submits a plugin, the Marketplace scans its code automatically for dangerous patterns (hidden code, running programs, sending data away). A reviewer with a Marketplace admin account then approves or rejects it. A plugin with a serious finding cannot be published unless that reviewer overrides it, and the override is recorded.

The Marketplace Review entry (switch: Enable Marketplace Review in Optional Features) is the reviewers' queue. It is only useful with a Marketplace admin account.

To build your own plugin, see Build and publish a plugin.