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architecture-paradigm-microkernel

Microkernel architecture with a minimal core and plugin-based extensibility for platforms

skill-install — Terminal

Install via CLI (Recommended)

clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/athola/nm-archetypes-architecture-paradigm-microkernel
Or

Night Market Skill — ported from claude-night-market/archetypes. For the full experience with agents, hooks, and commands, install the Claude Code plugin.

The Microkernel (Plugin) Architecture Paradigm

When To Use

  • Building extensible systems with plugin architectures
  • Products requiring customer-specific customizations

When NOT To Use

  • Monolithic applications without plugin extensibility needs
  • Systems where all features are core and tightly coupled by design

When to Employ This Paradigm

  • When building platforms, Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), data ingestion pipelines, or marketplaces where third parties need to extend core functionality.
  • When the core system requires extreme stability, while extensions and features must evolve and change rapidly.
  • When isolating optional dependencies and sandboxing untrusted code provided by plugins is critical.

Adoption Steps

  1. Define Core Services: Clearly delineate the minimal responsibilities of the microkernel, such as scheduling, component lifecycle management, core domain primitives, and messaging.
  2. Specify the Plugin Contract: Design and document the formal contract for all plugins, including registration procedures, capability descriptors, lifecycle hooks (e.g., start, stop), and the permission model.
  3. Build the Extension Loader and Sandbox: Implement the mechanisms for loading extensions, performing version compatibility checks, negotiating capabilities, and isolating plugins to prevent failures from cascading.
  4. Provide a Software Development Kit (SDK): To facilitate plugin development, provide an SDK with project templates, testing harnesses, and compatibility-checking tools.
  5. Govern the Release Process: Maintain a clear compatibility matrix between core and plugin versions. Implement an automated regression test suite that validates core functionality against a variety of plugins.

Key Deliverables

  • An Architecture Decision Record (ADR) describing the division of responsibilities between the core and plugins, along with the governance model for plugin development and certification.
  • Formal documentation for the security and permission model, detailing what capabilities are available to plugins.
  • An automated plugin validation pipeline that performs linting, runs tests, and executes the plugin within a sandbox environment.

Metadata

Author@athola
Stars4473
Views1
Updated2026-05-01
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Add to Configuration

Paste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.

{
  "plugins": {
    "official-athola-nm-archetypes-architecture-paradigm-microkernel": {
      "enabled": true,
      "auto_update": true
    }
  }
}
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