Plugins

What is a Plugin?

A plugin represents a single external service (e.g. Gmail, Stripe, Slack). It has:

• Slug — unique identifier, lowercase with hyphens/underscores (e.g. gmail, stripe)
• Name — human-readable display name
• Base URL — the API root (e.g. https://api.stripe.com). Optional for MCP-only plugins.
• Description — what the service does
• Icon URL — optional icon for the dashboard
• Plugin Prompt — optional text injected into LLM context when this plugin's tools are used
• Status — active, beta, or deprecated
• Categories — tags for organization (e.g. Messaging, Payments)
• Tool Source — manual (default), mcp, or both. Controls where tools come from.
• MCP Config — optional MCP server configuration (server URL, client ID, OAuth metadata)

Submission & Approval Workflow

All new plugins go through a review workflow before becoming live:

Create → Draft → Submit for Review → Pending Review → Approved (Live)
                                                    → Declined / Revision Requested → Edit → Resubmit

Both developers and admins create plugins through the same flow. Even admin-created plugins start as draft and must be approved (by any admin) before going live.

Creating a Plugin

Manual Plugin

1. Go to Plugins (admin) or Submissions (developer) → New Plugin / New Submission
2. Fill in the name (slug is auto-generated from name)
3. Set the base URL to the external API root
4. Optionally add description, icon, status, and categories
5. Click Create

After creation, the plugin starts in draft status. Open the plugin detail page to add auth methods and tools, then submit for review.

MCP Plugin

1. Go to Plugins or Submissions → New Plugin / New Submission
2. Fill in the name
3. Enter the MCP Server URL (e.g. https://mcp.notion.com/mcp)
4. Click Discover — NIN fetches OAuth metadata, handles provider-specific discovery fallbacks, and registers as a client when supported
5. Set Tool Source to mcp (or both if you also plan manual tools)
6. Click Create

NIN stores the discovered MCP configuration including the server URL, auth type, OAuth endpoints, and registered client ID when needed. Public MCP servers can be stored with authType: "none".

Plugin Detail Page

The plugin detail page shows a review status banner at the top with contextual actions:

• Draft — yellow banner with a “Submit for Review” button
• Pending Review — blue banner. Editing is locked for the creator; admins see approve/decline/request-revision controls
• Declined / Revision Requested — red/orange banner showing admin feedback with a “Resubmit” button
• Approved — green badge confirming the plugin is live

The page also shows the creator (name and email) below the plugin slug.

Below the banner, the page has three tabs:

Settings Tab

Edit name, slug, description, base URL, icon URL, status, plugin prompt, category assignments, tool source, and MCP server configuration. Changes are saved via the Save button.

The Tool Source selector controls which tools are exposed to agents:

• Manual — only hand-defined tools (classic behavior)
• MCP — only tools auto-discovered from the MCP server
• Both — manual and MCP tools together

The MCP Server section (visible when an MCP server is configured) displays the server URL, transport type, authentication type, and registered client ID. For public servers it shows a no-auth state instead of asking for OAuth credentials.

Auth Methods Tab

Add, edit, and delete auth methods for this plugin. See Auth System for details on supported types and configuration.

For MCP-enabled plugins, the MCP OAuth configuration is stored separately in mcpConfig and does not appear as a traditional auth method in this tab. For toolSource: "mcp", the hosted connect page hides manual auth methods completely.

Tools Tab

Shows both MCP tools (auto-discovered, read-only) and manual tools (editable) depending on the toolSource setting:

• MCP Tools section — read-only list of tools discovered from the MCP server, with a Sync Tools button to re-fetch
• Manual Tools section — editable tools you define (add/edit/delete)
• Each tool shows an expandable description and a Schema button to inspect the full JSON input schema

See Tools for the tool configuration reference.

Plugin List (Admin)

The admin Plugins page shows all plugins across the platform with three filter subtabs:

Each tab shows a count badge. Each plugin card displays:

• Review status badge — Draft, Pending, Live, Declined, or Revision
• Status badge — active, beta, or deprecated
• Tool count — sum of manual tools + MCP cached tools
• Auth count — number of auth methods + MCP auth (if configured)
• Creator — name or email of the user who created the plugin

API Endpoints

Plugin endpoints use creator-or-admin authorization — the plugin creator and any admin can access a specific plugin. Review actions are admin-only.