Unit 5: Extend Bowire
Time: ~55 minutes • Lessons: 4 • Modality: extension coding
Ship new capability on top of Bowire — a protocol plugin (in .NET or any language), a UI extension, and the lifecycle controls that manage them. This unit is coding; it never drops into the CLI or UI mid-lesson (it links to Units 1/3 where you run what you built).
Real, shipped reference throughout: Bowire.Protocol.Akka — a production IBowireProtocol plugin (src/, tests/, samples/) that streams an Akka.NET actor system into the workbench. Read it as the "completed" example; scaffold your own with dotnet new bowire-plugin.
Lessons
| Lesson | Topic | What You'll Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | .NET protocol plugin | IBowireProtocol, dotnet new bowire-plugin, pack, bowire plugin install |
| 5.2 | Polyglot sidecar plugin | Ship a plugin in Python / Rust / Node / Go via the sidecar SDK + .zip |
| 5.3 | UI extension — semantic kinds | [BowireExtension], IBowireUiExtension, auto-mounting a widget on coordinate.wgs84 |
| 5.4 | Plugin lifecycle | Load / unload / restart / reset-storage / health, without a process restart |
Why this unit
The plugin model is what makes Bowire multi-protocol by design rather than by a fixed list. This unit is for protocol authors and core contributors shipping new wires and UI surfaces.
Next: → Lesson 5.1: .NET protocol plugin