@iobroker/plugin-base

Base package to build ioBroker plugins

This library provides the foundation for a lightweight plugin system in ioBroker. Plugins add specialized, optional functionality and can run either inside an adapter or inside the js-controller. Plugins are not full adapters and therefore intentionally offer a smaller, focused API and a mostly static configuration.

Highlights

• Simple lifecycle: init and destroy
• Works in adapter and controller scope
• Namespaced logger with adapter/plugin prefix
• Small typed API to read/write objects and states
• Automatic handling of an "enabled" flag per plugin instance

Getting started

• Publish plugins as @iobroker/plugin-MySuperPlugin (replace MySuperPlugin with your plugin name).
• Depend on this package and extend the PluginBase class.
• Export the plugin class as the module entry point of your package.
• Implement these methods:
  • constructor: pass settings to the parent via super(settings) (required)
  • init(pluginConfig): initialize the plugin (required)
  • destroy(): clean up resources on shutdown; return true if successful (optional)
• Each plugin has an enabled flag that is respected by the base. If not set, plugins are enabled by default.
• Plugins can interact with objects and states in a limited, safe way via helper methods.

TypeScript example

import { PluginBase } from '@iobroker/plugin-base';
import type { PluginSettings } from '@iobroker/plugin-base';

export default class MySuperPlugin extends PluginBase {
    constructor(settings: PluginSettings) {
        super(settings);
    }

    /**
     * Register and initialize the plugin
     * @param pluginConfig Plugin configuration from config files
     */
    async init(pluginConfig: Record<string, any>): Promise<void> {
        if (!pluginConfig.enabled) {
            this.log.info('MySuperPlugin disabled by user');
            return;
        }

        // initialize your code here
        this.log.info('MySuperPlugin initialized');
    }

    /**
     * Called on a clean shutdown to clean up used resources
     * Return true if no further action is required
     */
    async destroy(): Promise<boolean> {
        // Implement cleanup if needed
        return true;
    }
}

CommonJS example

const { PluginBase } = require('@iobroker/plugin-base');

class MySuperPlugin extends PluginBase {
    constructor(settings) {
        super(settings);
    }

    /**
     * Register and initialize Plugin
     * @param pluginConfig {object} plugin configuration from config files
     */
    async init(pluginConfig) {
        if (!pluginConfig.enabled) {
            this.log.info('MySuperPlugin disabled by user');
            return;
        }

        // initialize your code here
        this.log.info('MySuperPlugin initialized');
    }

    /**
     * Method which is called on a clean end of the process to potentially clean up used resources
     */
    async destroy() {
        // Implement in your Plugin instance if needed
        return true;
    }
}

module.exports = MySuperPlugin;

Public API (selected)

Within your plugin, the following properties and methods are available:

• this.log: ioBroker-style logger with methods silly, debug, info, warn, error. Messages are automatically prefixed with adapter and plugin identifiers.
• this.pluginScope: the scope the plugin runs in (this.SCOPES.ADAPTER or this.SCOPES.CONTROLLER).
• this.pluginNamespace: the state/object namespace of the plugin instance, e.g., system.adapter.<ADAPTER_NAME>.<INSTANCE>.plugins.MySuperPlugin or system.host.<HOSTNAME>.plugins.MySuperPlugin. New objects should stay inside this namespace.
• this.iobrokerConfig: the full ioBroker config object (i.e., contents of iobroker-data/iobroker.json).
• this.parentPackage: the package.json of the adapter or controller the plugin runs in.
• this.parentIoPackage: the io-package.json when running in js-controller or the instance configuration when running in an adapter.

Helper methods to interact with DBs:

• getState(id) / setState(id, state)
• getObject(id) / setObject(id, obj) / extendObject(id, obj)

Configuration

Plugins are configured in io-package.json under common or in iobroker-data/iobroker.json at the top level in a plugins key:

{
    // ...
    "common": {
        // ...
        "plugins": {
            "MySuperPlugin": {
                "enabled": true,
                "key": "value",
                // ...
            },
        },
        // ...
    },
    // ...
}

The configuration is passed to the init method. The enabled key can also be provided as a boolean and acts as the default value. If enabled is not included, the plugin will be activated by default.

Examples

A full example is the Sentry plugin: https://github.com/ioBroker/plugin-sentry or the Docker plugin: https://github.com/ioBroker/plugin-docker

Changelog

3.0.3 (2025-10-16)

• (@GermanBluefox) Added system.host.${string} to allower namespaces

3.0.1 (2025-10-08)

• (@GermanBluefox) The code was rewritten to TypeScript

2.0.1 (2024-05-27)

Breaking Changes:

• (foxriver76) Methods no longer work with callback, please check the methods according to the types.
• (foxriver76) All methods with async postfix are now working renamed to methods without the postfix while the callback methods have been removed
• (foxriver76) Renamed instanciatePlugin to instantiatePlugin
• (foxriver76) renamed isPluginInstanciated to isPluginInstantiated

1.2.1 (2021-01-24)

• (Apollon77) Add error handling in some places when setting active Status

1.2.0 (2020-05-09)

• (Apollon77) Add async methods for Objects and States
• (Apollon77) rework enable detection for plugins

1.1.1 (2020-05-01)

• (Apollon77) fix for host lookup to work for all plugins

1.1.0 (2020-05-01)

• (Apollon77) Check host sentry plugin status when no adapter flag exists to allow users to turn it of more easy

1.0.0 (2020-04-26)

• (Apollon77) Declare as 1.0.0 for release of js-controller 3.0

0.1.1 (2020-03-29)

• (AlCalzone) add type support and optimizations

0.1.0 (2020-03-28)

• (Apollon77) initial release to npm