build

Read .plugin/plugin.json, validate it, and write a spec-conformant vendor manifest for each vendor declared in vendorExtensions.

Usage

universal-plugin plugin build [options]

Options

Flag	Description
--vendor <id>	Build only the named vendor
--dry-run	Print what would be written without writing
--verbose	Print field-by-field transformation decisions
--clean	Delete generated manifests before building
--root <path>	Plugin root directory (default: current directory)
--format json	Output as JSON

Vendor identifiers

--vendor	Output path
claude-code	.claude-plugin/plugin.json
cursor	.cursor-plugin/plugin.json
codex	.codex-plugin/plugin.json
copilot-cli	plugin.json (repo root)

Build steps

For each vendor key in vendorExtensions:

1. Start with all canonical open-plugin-spec fields from .plugin/plugin.json
2. Merge vendorExtensions.<vendor> fields (vendor fields win on conflict)
3. Drop component fields unsupported by the vendor (emits a warning)
4. Translate hook event names to vendor casing
5. Translate ${PLUGIN_ROOT} / ${PLUGIN_DATA} env vars
6. Enforce required fields (fails build on missing)
7. Write to the vendor output path

Validation

The build fails (exit 1) if:

• name is missing
• version or description is missing when targeting codex
• .plugin/plugin.json does not exist at the plugin root
• --vendor names a vendor not in vendorExtensions

Unrecognized vendor keys in vendorExtensions emit a warning and are skipped.

Examples

# Build all declared vendors
universal-plugin plugin build

# Build only Cursor
universal-plugin plugin build --vendor cursor

# Preview without writing
universal-plugin plugin build --dry-run --verbose

# Clean rebuild
universal-plugin plugin build --clean