Plugin Development Guides

Welcome to the Lokus Plugin Development Guides! These hands-on tutorials will walk you through building complete, working plugins from scratch.

What You’ll Learn

These guides are designed to take you from zero to productive plugin developer through practical, real-world examples. Each tutorial builds a complete working plugin that you can use as a starting point for your own projects.

Guides Overview

Quick Start

5 minutes • Get a plugin running in under 5 minutes

Set up your development environment and create your first plugin using the CLI. Perfect if you want to see results immediately.

• Install the CLI
• Generate a plugin
• Run it in Lokus
• See it work

Your First Plugin

15 minutes • Build a complete plugin from scratch

Create a “Hello World” plugin that demonstrates core concepts: initialization, logging, commands, and notifications.

• Plugin structure
• Constructor and activation
• Command registration
• UI notifications
• Testing your plugin

Adding Commands

20 minutes • Register commands and keyboard shortcuts

Build a text transformation plugin with multiple commands, keyboard shortcuts, and command palette integration.

• Multiple command registration
• Command categories
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Editor integration
• Command execution

UI Components

30 minutes • Create custom UI panels and status items

Create a productivity timer plugin with a custom sidebar panel, status bar items, and progress indicators.

• Custom UI panels
• Status bar items
• Progress indicators
• Event handling
• State management

Prerequisites

Before starting these guides, make sure you have:

Choosing Your Starting Point

New to Plugin Development?

Start with Quick Start to get familiar with the tools, then move to Your First Plugin to understand the fundamentals.

Want to Add Features?

Jump directly to the guide that matches your goal:

• Commands & Shortcuts → Adding Commands
• UI Panels & Widgets → UI Components

Already Familiar?

Browse our API Reference for detailed documentation on all available APIs.

What’s Next After These Guides?

Once you’ve completed these tutorials, explore more advanced topics:

• Editor Plugins - Create custom editor extensions, slash commands, and toolbar items
• UI Plugins - Build complex React-based UI panels
• Data Providers - Implement tree views and custom data sources
• Advanced Topics - Permissions, security, performance optimization

Getting Help

Contributing

Found an error in these guides? Want to suggest improvements?

• Edit this page on GitHub
• Submit feedback

Let’s get started! Head to the Quick Start guide to begin your plugin development journey.