Penpot Plugins are coming!
We are about to launch the beta of our much-awaited Plugins System and we are looking for creators to be among the first ones to build plugins in Penpot.
I always say that at Penpot we are not only building a product, but also a community. The influence between the product and the community goes both ways. The product helps the community while the community shapes the product. We strongly believe that plugins will play a key role in empowering the community on its path to making Penpot the design tool of our dreams.
We already provide options to integrate Penpot into your workflow. The open API, access tokens, and webhooks have been proven great. We also understand that the next natural step forward is having a plugin system that will bring the flexibility that creators need -we intentionally avoid the word “developers” here because we are aware that designers and other roles can also build plugins- to create and publish their own custom extensions.
The development of the basic system to create plugins is pretty much advanced. You can see some examples in action in these 5 hands on use cases that we recently showed in a live demo. In these examples, we see plugins that can both read and write the document model and also access the assets library.
Our approach to plugins
We want to give users the power to extend Penpot’s capabilities in a meaningful way and provide value to other users (and themselves) with as little friction as possible, and also with the peace of mind that you are not going to break anything at Penpot. That is why:
- Plugins can be written using standard web technologies such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML.
- Plugin development is highly decoupled from Penpot’s development environment. Nope, you don’t need to know Clojure or comply with our contribution guidelines.
- Plugins are sandboxed and executed in a separate process to prevent conflicts with Penpot features and security vulnerabilities.
It looks like we have all figured out, so why this beta test?
Given the experimental nature of this brand-new plugin system, there is a specific level of uncertainty that we want to reduce. This beta testing will help us identify and address any issues or areas for improvement, ensuring a more refined and user-friendly plugin system by gathering feedback.
The scope of this test is reduced to the “creator flow” (building plugins). In the future, we will consider doing a similar practice for the “consumer flow” (using plugins).
The main questions that we want to answer are simple:
- Can users develop plugins in a user-friendly way?
- Are documentation and support materials clear and comprehensive enough?
Who should join the beta testing?
Anyone with basic knowledge of web development (JS, CSS, and HTML standards) is welcome to participate.
Will there be help?
Yes, of course. Once you join the test process, we will provide guidelines, plugin templates, and a UI kit with basic CSS and components. We’ll also be available to give direct support if needed.
How can you join the beta test?
Simply email us at support@penpot.app with the subject line “Plugin Beta test volunteer.” In the email, please share a brief overview of your role and if you have some experience that might be relevant to this test. And we’ll get back to you to let you know whether your application has been accepted.
We are beyond excited and looking forward to seeing what can come out of the creativity of our amazing community!
