Block Protocol

Public monorepo for the Block Protocol.

  What is the Block Protocol?

The Block Protocol is an open standard for building, using and embedding data-driven blocks. Blocks developed in accordance with the protocol allow you to make websites and applications that are both more useful to and readable by humans and machines. Neither blocks nor the applications that embed them require any knowledge of each other's existence. Both need only conform to the protocol.

  Getting Started

Please refer to the Block Protocol documentation for complete instructions on using the Block Protocol, including:

• developing blocks and publishing them to the Þ Hub
• using blocks inside other applications
• becoming an embedder so that others can use blocks within your application or framework

  Examples

• Environments
  • HASH is an embedding application that supports the Block Protocol, enabling its users to insert arbitrary blocks from the Þ Hub at runtime.
  • WordPress supports the embedding of Þ blocks, through the Block Protocol for WordPress plugin.
  • Additional environments will be listed here as they become generally available.
  • You can also integrate the Block Protocol into your own app and contact us to have it listed here.
• Blocks
  • Please view the Þ Hub.
  • We'll also be adding star examples to the Awesome Blocks repo. Feel free to open a PR to suggest an addition there.

For more examples, please refer to the Block Protocol documentation or browse the complete Þ Hub.

  Roadmap

Learn more on our Roadmap page in the docs.

• See the RFC category on GitHub Discussions for a list of active RFCs
• See the open issues for a list of some other proposed features (and known issues).

  Repository overview

Finding things within a monorepo isn't always straight forward, in particular if you're an external contributor looking at a repository for the first time. We've tried to logically separate our repo into executable applications or tools (apps), developer libraries including packages and crates (libs), and a collection of Block Protocol maintained blocks (blocks). As an open-source community project, we welcome contributions.

For block and application developers

As a block developer, you probably care most about our utility libraries. All of the below are contained within the libs folder and are available via yarn add <package_name> or npm install <package_name>. Individual README files within each directory provide more details.

• @blockprotocol/core: implements the Block Protocol Core specification for blocks and embedding applications
• @blockprotocol/graph: implements the Block Protocol Graph module for blocks and embedding applications
• @blockprotocol/hook: implements the Block Protocol Hook module for blocks and embedding applications
• @blockprotocol/type-system: implements the type system as a WebAssembly-based npm package (with code autogenerated from crate subfolder)
• @local/*: auxiliary Yarn workspaces for local development and testing
• block-scripts: scripts used by block-template-*
• block-template-*: starter templates for blocks, used by create-block-app
• blockprotocol: command line interface for interacting with the Block Protocol API, e.g. for publishing blocks
• create-block-app: a script to create a new block using block-template-*
• mock-block-dock: a lightweight mock embedding application that can be used to test blocks during their development

You might also find the Þ feature showcase block helpful, for an all-in-one reference demonstrating the implementation of different Block Protocol methods.

For spec and site contributors

1. apps/site: the code for blockprotocol.org, including:

   • the Block Protocol specification (view on GitHub)
   • the Block Protocol documentation (view on GitHub)

2. rfcs: contains RFCs (Requests For Comments); this folder is intended to maintain a consistent and controlled process for new features to enter the project

3. libs/@blockprotocol/type-system: Rust crate which auto-generates a WebAssembly-based npm package, providing a single source of truth for type system definitions

  Contributing

The Block Protocol is an open-source standard, and community contributions are what make open-source such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

Please consider starring the project and watching it on GitHub, to be kept abreast of future developments and show your appreciation.

If you’ve got an idea for a new block, would like to make a suggestion that improves the protocol itself, or want to contribute to a better developer experience for users of the protocol, then please either open an RFC, or open an issue with the tag “enhancement”. If you're unsure as to which is more appropriate, read the "When to follow this process" section of our RFC README.

Please feel free to fork the repo in order to create a pull request:

1. Fork the project
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a pull request targeting this repo

If you’re looking for inspiration regarding new blocks to build, or contributions you could make, please check the open issues. See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

  License

The vast majority of this repository is dual-licensed under the Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses, at your option. See the LICENSE file for more information.

  Security

Please see SECURITY for instructions around reporting issues, and details of which package versions we actively support.

  Contact

Find us on Twitter at @blockprotocol or email support@blockprotocol.org

You can also join our Discord community for quick help and support.

Project permalink: https://github.com/blockprotocol/blockprotocol

  Acknowledgments

• Ciaran Morinan - HASH (profile)
• Joel Spolsky - HASH (profile)