Developer
These guides are for people working on Cove itself or using Cove as a host platform. If this is your first extension, follow the extension tutorial before using the architecture and contract guides for individual decisions.
When contributing to Cove itself, read the core contribution and version policy. It explains why every commit on main must be releasable, how development builds are identified, and how merged migrations remain chronological.
Changes to discovery, file readiness, identity reconciliation, generated media, or directory skipping should use the real-world scan stress campaign. It defines reusable fixture roles and acceptance criteria without depending on a particular media library.
Build your first extension
Section titled “Build your first extension”- Run Cove locally and verify the frontend and backend development loops.
- Create your first extension and install it in that local Cove instance.
Once that path works, continue with the focused tutorials to create a scraper or create a downloader.
Understand the extension contracts
Section titled “Understand the extension contracts”- Understand extension architecture
- Follow the logging policy
- Package an extension
- Declare and enforce extension permissions
- Browse the extension point catalog
- Look up UI extension points
- Use Cove’s API
Contribute to these docs
Section titled “Contribute to these docs”What this section assumes
Section titled “What this section assumes”These guides assume you want more than a user-facing install. They focus on the local development loop, how the frontend and backend fit together, what the extension host can contribute, and where scrapers and downloaders fit into that model.