Manifest reference - ADOS Documentation

The manifest is the entire contract between a plugin and the host. Get it right and everything else (install, permission grants, slot mounting, capability checks) falls into place automatically.

File location

manifest.yaml lives at the root of the .adosplug archive. The host opens the archive, reads the manifest first, and refuses to unpack anything else if the manifest fails validation.

Top-level shape

Identity and configuration live as flat top-level keys. There is no plugin: wrapper.

schema_version: 1     # 1 or 2
id: com.example.thermal
version: "1.0.0"
name: "Example Thermal"
description: "One sentence."
author: "Example Author"
homepage: "https://example.com/thermal"
license: "GPL-3.0-or-later"
risk: medium          # low | medium | high | critical

compatibility:        # required
agent:                # optional, agent half
gcs:                  # optional, GCS half

At least one of agent or gcs must be present. The host accepts plugins that ship only one half; the first-party Battery Health Panel, for example, is GCS-only.

Field	Type	Notes
`schema_version`	int	`1` baseline, `2` unlocks the v2 agent fields (`vendor_attribution`, `subprocess_spawn`, `per_drone_config`).
`id`	string	Reverse-DNS, lowercase, dotted. Validated against the plugin-id pattern.
`version`	string	Semver.
`name`	string	Operator-facing display name.
`description`	string	One short sentence.
`author`	string	Free-form.
`homepage`	url	Optional.
`license`	string	SPDX expression. `GPL-3.0-or-later` recommended.
`risk`	enum	`low`, `medium`, `high`, `critical`. Defaults to `medium`.

The manifest also accepts optional install-dialog content fields the GCS renders for a richer pre-install summary (description_long, features, hardware_requirements, resource_impact, required_fc_parameters, telemetry_fields, documentation_url, screenshots). The agent does not interpret any of them.

`compatibility`

Field	Notes
`ados_version`	Required. Semver range. The agent half compares against setup status or `/api/version`.
`gcs_version`	Optional. Semver range matched against the running Mission Control build.
`supported_boards`	Array of board ids, exact match. An empty list (the default) means any board passes; a non-empty list is checked by exact membership, so the supervisor refuses install or enable on a board id not in the list.
`min_tier`	Optional integer 1 to 4. Minimum compute-class tier the plugin needs. The supervisor refuses install or enable on a board whose detected tier is below this; a board with an unknown tier is never blocked.

Node profiles are declared on the agent half (agent.target_profiles), not here.

`agent`

agent:
  entrypoint: "agent/plugin.py"
  isolation: "subprocess"        # subprocess (default) or inprocess (first-party)
  runtime: "python"              # python (default) or rust
  permissions:
    - id: event.publish
    - id: mavlink.read
  resources:
    max_ram_mb: 96               # default 96, range 8 to 4096
    max_cpu_percent: 25          # default 25, range 1 to 100
    max_pids: 12                 # default 12, range 1 to 256
  target_profiles: ["drone"]     # subset of drone, ground-station
  contributes:
    services: []                 # optional, plugin-declared extra systemd services

entrypoint is a relative path inside the archive (no absolute paths, no ..). For a file-path entrypoint like agent/plugin.py the runner loads a class named Plugin. A module:Class entrypoint is also accepted and is how built-in plugins declare themselves. isolation: subprocess is the default and the only mode third-party plugins may declare. inprocess is reserved for first-party plugins that import into the supervisor. runtime: rust runs the entrypoint as its own binary (rust always runs subprocess).

Agent field reference

Field	Type	Default	Notes
`entrypoint`	string	required	A `module:Class` id (built-in plugins) or a relative path to the half’s entrypoint inside the archive. No `..`, no absolute path. For a Rust plugin this is the binary path, e.g. `bin/<name>`.
`isolation`	enum	`subprocess`	`subprocess` is the only mode third-party plugins may declare. `inprocess` is first-party-only and rejected for `runtime: rust`.
`runtime`	enum	`python`	`python` runs the entrypoint under the shared Python runner; `rust` execs the plugin’s own cross-compiled binary directly under systemd. Older manifests without the field load as `python`.
`permissions`	list	`[]`	Capability requests. See permission shape.
`resources`	object	see below	Hard limits the supervisor enforces.
`contributes`	object	`{}`	Agent-side contributions: `services`, `drivers`, `vision`.
`mavlink_components`	list	`[]`	MAVLink components the plugin registers.
`target_profiles`	list	`["drone"]`	Subset of `drone`, `ground-station`. Must list at least one.
`contains_vendor_binary`	bool	`false`	Set true when the archive ships a pre-compiled vendor binary; requires `vendor_attribution`. Schema v2.
`vendor_attribution`	list	`[]`	Source-offer records. Required (non-empty) when `contains_vendor_binary` is true. Schema v2.
`subprocess_spawn`	list	absent	Allowlist of binary basenames the plugin may exec via `ctx.process.spawn`. Requires the `process.spawn` permission. Schema v2.
`per_drone_config`	bool	`false`	Run one process instance per connected drone with a distinct `ctx.agent_id` and a per-drone config file. Schema v2.
`test_fixtures`	map	`{}`	Map of friendly name to fixture YAML path, replayed by the SDK test harness.

`agent.resources`

Field	Default	Range
`max_ram_mb`	`96`	8 to 4096
`max_cpu_percent`	`25`	1 to 100
`max_pids`	`12`	1 to 256

`agent.mavlink_components`

Each entry registers a MAVLink component so the router claims its id and answers component-info on the plugin’s behalf.

mavlink_components:
  - component_id: 100        # 0 to 255
    component_kind: camera   # camera | gimbal | payload | peripheral | generic | vio
    sub_id: 1                # optional, 0 to 255

Permission shape

A permission entry is either a bare string (which means required) or an object with id, required, and an optional degraded_behavior:

permissions:
  - id: mavlink.read                 # required (bare string also works: "mavlink.read")
  - id: hardware.i2c
    required: false                  # optional; the plugin degrades gracefully without it
    degraded_behavior: "Falls back to MAVLink-only telemetry"

Unknown permission ids load with a warning rather than a hard failure, so an experimental manifest still parses. See the Permissions reference.

Schema-2 agent fields

contains_vendor_binary, vendor_attribution, subprocess_spawn, and per_drone_config are schema-2 fields. A v1 manifest gets the defaults.

per_drone_config: true runs one process per connected drone, each with its own ctx.agent_id and config at /var/lib/ados/plugins/<plugin_id>/config/<agent_id>.yaml.
subprocess_spawn is an allowlist of binary basenames the plugin may exec. The plugin host rejects any spawn whose basename is not on the list, and the manifest validator requires the process.spawn permission whenever the list is non-empty.
contains_vendor_binary plus vendor_attribution travel together: the flag must be set when (and only when) at least one attribution record is present. Each vendor_attribution entry takes license (required) plus optional name, source_url, source_offer_url, upstream_repo, upstream_version, commit_sha, and notice. See Vendor binaries.

agent:
  runtime: rust
  entrypoint: "bin/vision-nav"
  isolation: subprocess
  per_drone_config: true
  contains_vendor_binary: true
  vendor_attribution:
    - name: "OpenVINS"
      license: "GPL-3.0-only"
      source_url: "https://github.com/rpng/open_vins"
      upstream_version: "v2.7"
      notice: "Used by the VIO mode."
  permissions:
    - id: vision.frame.read
    - id: process.spawn
  subprocess_spawn:
    - ados_openvins_shim

`gcs`

gcs:
  entrypoint: "gcs/plugin.bundle.js"
  isolation: "iframe"            # iframe (default), worker, or inline
  permissions:
    - id: ui.slot.fc-tab
    - id: telemetry.subscribe.battery
  contributes:
    panels:
      - id: battery-health-tab
        slot: fc.tab
        title: "Battery Health"
        icon: "battery"
        order: 30
    notifications:
      - id: battery-anomaly
        title: "Battery anomaly"
        severity: warning
  locales:
    - "en"

contributes carries skills, tabs, parameters, settings, panels, overlays, notifications, missionTemplates, mapOverlays, and models. The slot value in contributes.panels[].slot comes from the slot taxonomy (fc.tab, hardware.tab, settings.section, and the rest; see the contribution points reference). Mounting in a slot also requires the matching ui.slot.* permission listed under gcs.permissions. Locales are listed under gcs.locales, a sibling of contributes. skills declares flight Skills that surface in the cockpit Skill Bar (toggle, hotkey or gamepad binding, activation through per-drone config, read-back over an event topic). Each skill entry needs the ui.slot.flight-skill permission. The agent does not interpret skill entries; the GCS skill registry reads them.

`contributes` key	Mounts
`skills`	A flight Skill in the cockpit Skill Bar (`flight.skill`).
`tabs`	A node-detail tab on any node profile (`node.detail.tab`).
`parameters`	Native schema-driven form fields (no UI slot of their own).
`settings`	A native settings section (`settings.section`).
`panels`	A tab or panel in a UI slot (`fc.tab`, `hardware.tab`, `settings.section`).
`overlays`	A video overlay (`video.overlay`).
`notifications`	A notification channel (`notification.channel`).
`missionTemplates`	A mission template entry (`mission.template`).
`mapOverlays`	A map overlay (`map.overlay`).
`models`	A vision model registration (no UI slot).

The full contribution reference, with the manifest shape of each kind and where it renders, is on the contribution points page.

Signing and the archive

The .adosplug archive is a zip. There is no per-asset hash list in the manifest and no signing: block. Instead the archive carries a separate top-level SIGNATURE file with two lines: the signer key id, then the base64 Ed25519 signature over a canonical payload hash (the SHA-256 of the sorted <path>\n<sha256-hex>\n lines for every entry except SIGNATURE). Because the hash covers every entry, any tampering after signing fails verification. Archives are size-bounded (50 MB per archive, 25 MB per entry) and reject path-traversal entries (.., absolute paths, symlinks). A manifest that fails validation raises a manifest error; a signature from an unknown or revoked signer is rejected (see Signing keys).

​File location

​Top-level shape

​compatibility

​agent

​Agent field reference

​agent.resources

​agent.mavlink_components

​Permission shape

​Schema-2 agent fields

​gcs

​Signing and the archive

​See also