Core concepts

Companion executable

A plugin is an executable such as mere-vfx-tools, not a shared library loaded into mere.run. This keeps failure, dependencies, permissions, and upgrades at an explicit process boundary.

Catalog entry

The catalog maps a stable plugin ID to its package, entrypoint, capabilities, source repository, and install channel.

Manifest

<plugin> manifest --json describes a plugin. It is validated against the plugin.v1 contract and is safe for discovery to call.

Plan

A plan resolves the requested workflow without beginning paid or destructive work. It becomes a durable run.json with status planned.

Run

A run executes the planned steps and updates the same manifest as state changes. The manifest is written before any remote mutation.

Artifact

An artifact is an output with a path, kind, content type, label, and—after successful production—an integrity hash. Plugins may produce media, JSON, reports, logs, masks, models, or artifact bundles.

Cleanup

Cleanup is a lifecycle operation, not an afterthought. Local plugins record that no remote cleanup is needed. Provider plugins terminate resources by default and record the result. Cleanup must be safe to repeat.

Recipe

A recipe is a language-neutral workflow definition. It describes inputs, commands, provider expectations, output patterns, and safety defaults. See Recipes.