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LLP 0006: Dependencies and Capabilities

Type: Spec Status: Active Systems: Plugins Author: Phil / Claude Date: 2026-06-01 Related: LLP 0005, LLP 0016

How plugins depend on each other. Decomposed from hypaware-design.md (Dependencies and Capabilities).

Two kinds of dependency

Most plugins have no dependencies. When a plugin does need cross-plugin behavior it declares one of two kinds:

  • Plugin dependency: "this named plugin must be installed and activated before me." Used when you specifically need that plugin's presence (e.g. an adapter that exists for it).
  • Capability dependency: "some plugin must provide this versioned API." Used when the implementation is interchangeable.

Capability identifiers are bare names (hypaware.ai-gateway); the version requirement travels alongside as a semver range, never baked into the identifier. Adapters often use both kinds: e.g. @hypaware/claude depends on @hypaware/ai-gateway as a plugin (it makes no sense without it) and requires the hypaware.ai-gateway capability (so a drop-in replacement could satisfy the contract):

{
  "name": "@hypaware/claude",
  "requires": {
    "plugins": { "@hypaware/ai-gateway": "^1.0.0" },
    "capabilities": { "hypaware.ai-gateway": "^1.0.0" }
  }
}

A provider declares its capability version under provides:

{ "name": "@hypaware/ai-gateway",
  "provides": { "capabilities": { "hypaware.ai-gateway": "1.2.0" } } }

Resolution rules

  • Core resolves dependencies before activation.
  • Missing or incompatible capabilities fail early, with a clear error.
  • Plugin dependencies must be acyclic.
  • Plugins must not import another plugin's private files.
  • Plugins talk to each other only through ctx.requireCapability(name, range).
const proxy = ctx.requireCapability('hypaware.ai-gateway', '^1.0.0')
proxy.registerClient({ name: 'claude-code', defaultUpstream: 'anthropic', attach, detach })

The capability registry is the single sanctioned cross-plugin channel: it is what keeps the plugin graph decoupled and replaceable.