gobetterauth/plugin-architecture

Plugin Architecture & Lifecycle

When to use this skill

• Create new authentication plugins (OAuth2, Magic Link, JWT, etc.)
• Extend authentication with custom features
• Define plugin configuration and metadata
• Handle plugin initialization, migrations, and lifecycle
• Provide HTTP routes through a plugin
• Hook into core authentication events

Key principles

1. Interface-driven: Plugins implement optional interfaces
2. Composition: Dependencies via context, not inheritance
3. Self-contained: Each plugin has its own services, repositories, handlers
4. Lazy initialization: Heavy operations in Init(), not constructors
5. Event-driven: Plugins hook into core events
6. Service registry: Plugins register services for other plugins

Pattern

Plugin lifecycle:

• Define metadata (ID, name, version)
• Implement Init to retrieve services, create repositories/services
• Implement optional Routes, Migrations, Middleware
• Register custom services with registry
• Implement Close for cleanup

Example

See examples/todo_plugin.go for:

• TodosPlugin metadata and Init pattern
• Service retrieval and registration
• Routes definition and handler wiring
• Lifecycle management (Close)

Common mistakes

1. Initializing in constructor instead of Init()
2. Not retrieving services from registry (use Get with type assertion)
3. Forgetting type assertions on service retrieval
4. Registering services with wrong names
5. Not implementing Close()
6. Direct plugin-to-plugin dependencies instead of service registry
7. Not handling initialization errors

References

• models/plugin.go - Plugin interface definitions
• plugins/email-password/plugin.go - Email-password plugin
• plugins/jwt/plugin.go - JWT plugin
• internal/bootstrap/plugin_factory.go - Plugin factory