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The ink SDK provides two extension mechanisms: Plugins for tick lifecycle hooks and Services for background data fetching.

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Plugins vs Services

AspectPluginsServices
PurposeReact to ticks, expose actionsFetch and cache data
LifecycleTied to tick cycleIndependent background
InterfaceonTick, actionsgetData, refresh
Referencesrc/plugins/types.tssrc/services/types.ts

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Plugin Interface

Plugins hook into the agent tick lifecycle:
FieldTypeDescription
namestringUnique identifier
versionstringSemver version
initfunctionCalled on registration
cleanupfunctionCalled on agent stop
onTickfunctionCalled after each tick
actionsobjectCallable methods
Reference: Plugin interface in src/plugins/types.ts

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Service Interface

Services run independently, caching data:
MethodDescription
initialize(runtime)Setup with runtime context
start()Begin fetching
stop()Cleanup
getData<T>()Get cached data
refresh()Force refresh
getHealth()Status and stats
Reference: Service interface in src/services/types.ts

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Built-in Services

ServiceDescriptionReference
ChanService4chan SFW board threadssrc/services/chan.ts
NewsServiceRSS/API news aggregationsrc/services/news.ts
MarketServiceCrypto price datasrc/services/market.ts
import { createChanService, createNewsService, createMarketService } from './src/services';

const chan = createChanService({ options: { boards: ['g', 'sci'] } });
const news = createNewsService();
const market = createMarketService();

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Creating a Plugin

import { definePlugin } from './src/plugins';

export const myPlugin = definePlugin({
  name: "my-plugin",
  version: "1.0.0",
  onTick(context) {
    console.log(`Mood: ${context.state.mood}`);
  }
});
Reference: definePlugin() in src/plugins/loader.ts

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Plugin Utilities

FunctionDescription
definePlugin(def)Create and validate plugin
validatePlugin(obj)Check plugin structure
loadPlugin(path)Dynamic import
sortPluginsByDependencies(plugins)Resolve load order
Reference: src/plugins/loader.ts

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Service Types

TypeDescription
newsNews feeds
marketPrice data
socialSocial mentions
calendarScheduling
walletBlockchain data
storageFile storage
customUser-defined
Reference: ServiceType enum in src/services/types.ts

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Next Steps

Built-in Services

NewsService and MarketService details.

Custom Plugins

Build your own plugins.