Marketplace

The marketplace is MINT's plugin discovery and install surface. Users browse available plugins; admins approve install requests and manage the lifecycle.

[Screenshot: marketplace page showing plugin cards with install buttons]

What's a marketplace registry

A registry is a JSON feed of available plugins, hosted at marketplace.registryUrl (set in config.json). The default registry is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MorscherLab/mint-registry/main/registry.json; private labs can host their own.

The feed for each plugin contains:

Field	Purpose
name + display_name	Stable plugin identity and readable label
source.github_repo + source.asset_pattern	GitHub release source and .mint asset glob
latest_version + min_platform_version	Advertised version and minimum platform version
plugin_type	static, analysis, experiment_design, or full
capabilities	Whether the plugin requires auth, database access, and/or a frontend
Author + repo + license	Provenance
Description, tags, icon URL	Marketplace UI

A plugin can be in the registry without yet being installed. Conversely, plugins installed outside the registry through Admin → Plugins or the platform API won't appear in Marketplace — they show up under Installed but not Marketplace.

Browsing

Open Admin → Plugins, then Browse Registry. Cards show name, type, latest version, tags, author, and a one-line summary.

[Screenshot: marketplace card with Install / Request install buttons]

Filter	Notes
Type	Static / Analysis / Experiment Design / Full
Installed	Show already-installed plugins
Updates	Show installed plugins with a newer registry version
Search	Free text against display name, description, and tags

Install vs request install

Install permissions decide whether a user installs directly or submits a request:

Mode	Member action	Admin action
User has plugins.install	User clicks Install	None
User has plugins.view but not plugins.install	User clicks Request install; the request lands in Admin → Plugin requests	Admin reviews and either Approve (install proceeds) or Deny

Approval requests retain their context — who requested, when, why — so an admin can audit them later.

What happens during install

1. The plugin manager downloads the requested version
2. conflict.py checks the plugin's dependency tree against everything already installed
3. If conflicts exist, isolation.py provisions a per-plugin venv via uv
4. snapshot.py captures the pre-install Python environment for package rollback
5. MigrationRunner applies the plugin's migrations
6. The platform reports whether a restart is required before the plugin is loaded
7. On startup, the plugin's initialize(context) runs and its routers mount

If install fails, the operation reports the failing step and leaves the plugin uninstalled or requiring administrator cleanup, depending on where the failure occurred. Dependency conflicts surface as a retry-with-force dialog; use that only when you understand the dependency change.

[Screenshot: install progress dialog with each step ticking through]

Upgrade

Marketplace cards show an Update badge when a newer version is available. Click Update; the platform repeats the install flow against the new version, records the updated package, and reports whether a server restart is required before the new code is active.

If the update fails before activation, the platform reports the failing step. If a migration fails during startup, the plugin stays in an error state and the admin surfaces show the failure.

Uninstall

From Admin → Plugins, click Uninstall on the plugin. The current Admin UI and mint plugin uninstall use the safe default: remove the package and keep plugin-owned database tables in place.

See Plugins → Uninstall modes for the full discussion.

Hosting a private registry

A registry is a static JSON document plus the .mint bundle files it points at. Any HTTPS host works (S3, GitHub Pages, an internal HTTP server). Set marketplace.registryUrl to the JSON's URL and restart MINT.

The schema for the registry feed lives in api/models/marketplace_schemas.py. A reference implementation is at MorscherLab/mint-registry.

Next

→ Updates — auto-updates and pin versions → Plugin development → Operations → Packaging — mint build produces installable bundles