The Store, Kits and plugins

What it is

The Store (App Store on the desktop) is where most people get apps. It has a Discover page of hand-picked apps in four categories (Create, Work, Play, Develop), a Kits page for sets of things you install in one click, and a Plugins page for shell plugins. The Store page of this site shows the same catalogue. Underneath it uses wopkg, the same library as the wopkg command.

Why

Each source of apps has its own tool and its own idea of an update, and the same app often exists in three of them. The Store joins them: one app is one entry, matched by its AppStream id, and its page lists every source and version. Kits exist because some needs are bigger than one app (the formats a video needs, the apps for creative work), and an install of that size should be one choice with a clear size and a clear way back.

How

Browsing and installing an app

1. Open the Store from Search. You see Discover with hand-picked rows, and tabs for Create, Work, Play and Develop, Kits and Plugins.
2. Open an app. Its tile says where it comes from. You see every source and version of the app. One app is one entry, matched by its AppStream id; two sources with no shared id stay two entries.
3. Pick the source and click Get. The Store installs apps for everyone on the computer, with a restore point first.
4. Later: the same page offers Update, Keep This Version (pins it) and Roll Back.

Notes: Develop also lists SDKs and toolchains. The AUR is never in browse or search. It has its own tab that shows the risk first; opening it asks for an administrator's password once each time the Store runs, and AUR installs stay in Terminal behind the AUR laws check. From a terminal: wopkg search <name>, wopkg install <name>, wopkg update.

Kits

A Kit is a named set. Each is one package that names its parts, plus anything that has to install for your account only. A Kit that is already installed shows Added instead of Get.

Optional modules are bigger stacks (Developer, AI Assistants, Local AI, Sessions, Creative, Gaming, Console) and are not on this page. Settings > Modules lists all seven, the installer offers five, and wol modules install <id> adds one. See Optional modules for each one's size and what it needs.

A Kit that cannot apply on this computer is not shown. The installer's Add Media Formats switch adds the same formats at install time; offline, they are added at first start with a network.

Plugins

Store > Plugins reads the signed plugin index. For each plugin it shows what it does and what it asks for ("Does a thing. Asks to: read data from the web (each site asks once)"), and a button that says what happens next:

• Get downloads the plugin, checks it, and writes it into your plugin folder (~/.local/share/wolos/plugins/<id>/). Nothing here needs the administrator.
• Turn On runs wol plugin enable, which grants only what the row lists.
• Update appears when the index has a newer version. Plugins follow the index on their own schedule; an OS release neither brings nor holds them.
• Remove removes a plugin the Store installed.
• A plugin that needs a newer WolOS says so (for example "Needs WolOS 0.13").
• Create Plugin opens Plugin Maker.

Other ways in: drop a folder in the plugin folder, or run wol plugin add <folder|.wolplug>. Unsigned plugins are marked unreviewed and need --yes (the Store shows its own confirmation). Adding a plugin by its id from the index works only in the Store.

What a plugin can do

Add a menu bar or Dock item, a desktop widget, a Control Center tile, search results, a keyboard shortcut, a theme or a web app launcher. Each runs in a sandbox with time and size limits, and a plugin that keeps failing is turned off. Tiles, Dock items and shortcuts that run commands run only after you allow it (Privacy and permissions). The full reference is the Plugin API.

If something goes wrong