@voiden/sdk

Official SDK for building Voiden extensions with support for both UI (renderer process) and Electron (main process).

What is Voiden?

Voiden is an extensible, privacy-focused editor built on Electron and Tiptap. The Voiden SDK enables developers to create powerful extensions that enhance the editor's functionality, from custom blocks and slash commands to system-level integrations.

Features

• 🎨 UI Extensions - Build custom editor blocks, slash commands, sidebars, and panels
• ⚡ Electron Extensions - Access native APIs, file system, and system integrations
• 🔄 Cross-Process Communication - Seamless IPC between UI and Electron extensions
• 💾 Storage API - Extension-scoped persistent storage
• 🔌 Pipeline System - Hook into request/response lifecycle
• 🌍 Environment API - Secure access to environment variables
• 📦 Helper System - Cross-extension communication and shared functionality
• 🔒 Type-Safe - Full TypeScript support with complete type definitions

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20.x or higher
• npm 10.x or higher (or yarn/pnpm)
• TypeScript 5.x knowledge recommended
• React 18.x (for UI extensions)
• Tiptap 2.x (for custom editor blocks)

Installation

npm install @voiden/sdk
# or
yarn add @voiden/sdk

Installing Peer Dependencies

For UI extensions, you'll also need to install the required peer dependencies:

npm install react react-dom @tiptap/core @tiptap/pm @tiptap/react

Quick Start

Create your first extension in minutes:

import { UIExtension } from '@voiden/sdk/ui';

export class MyExtension extends UIExtension {
  name = 'my-first-extension';
  version = '1.0.0';
  description = 'My first Voiden extension';

  async onLoad() {
    this.registerSlashCommand({
      name: 'greet',
      label: 'Say Hello',
      slash: '/hello',
      description: 'Insert a greeting',
      action: (editor) => {
        editor.commands.insertContent('Hello from my extension!');
      },
    });
  }
}

Architecture

The SDK is divided into three parts:

• UI Extensions (@voiden/sdk/ui) - Run in the renderer process, handle editor blocks, UI components
• Electron Extensions (@voiden/sdk/electron) - Run in the main process, handle IPC, file system, native APIs
• Shared (@voiden/sdk/shared) - Shared types and utilities

UI Extension Example

import { UIExtension } from '@voiden/sdk/ui';
import { MyCustomNode } from './nodes/MyCustomNode';

export class MyUIExtension extends UIExtension {
  name = 'my-ui-extension';
  version = '1.0.0';
  description = 'My awesome UI extension';

  async onLoad() {
    // Register a custom block
    this.registerBlock({
      name: 'my-custom-block',
      label: 'My Custom Block',
      node: MyCustomNode,
      icon: 'box',
    });

    // Register a slash command
    this.registerSlashCommand({
      name: 'insert-custom',
      label: 'Custom Block',
      slash: '/custom',
      description: 'Insert a custom block',
      action: (editor) => {
        editor.commands.insertContent({ type: 'my-custom-block' });
      },
    });

    // Register a sidebar
    this.registerSidebar('right', {
      id: 'my-sidebar',
      title: 'My Sidebar',
      component: MySidebarComponent,
    });
  }
}

Electron Extension Example

import { ElectronExtension } from '@voiden/sdk/electron';

export class MyElectronExtension extends ElectronExtension {
  name = 'my-electron-extension';
  version = '1.0.0';
  description = 'My awesome Electron extension';

  async onLoad() {
    // Register IPC handler
    this.registerIPCHandler('my-channel', async (data) => {
      const result = await this.processData(data);
      return { success: true, result };
    });

    // Register custom protocol
    this.registerProtocol({
      scheme: 'myapp',
      handler: async (url) => {
        return { data: 'Custom protocol response' };
      },
    });

    // Watch file system
    this.watchFileSystem({
      path: '/path/to/watch',
      onChange: (event, path) => {
      },
    });
  }

  private async processData(data: any) {
    // Custom processing logic
    return data;
  }
}

Full Extension (UI + Electron)

Many extensions need both UI and Electron components:

// index.ts
import { MyUIExtension } from './ui';
import { MyElectronExtension } from './electron';

export const ui = new MyUIExtension();
export const electron = new MyElectronExtension();

API Reference

UI Extension APIs

Core Methods

• registerBlock(block: BlockDefinition) - Register a Tiptap node as a custom block
• registerSlashCommand(command: SlashCommandDefinition) - Register a slash command
• registerSlashGroup(group: SlashCommandGroup) - Register a group of slash commands
• registerSidebar(side: 'left' | 'right', tab: TabDefinition) - Register a sidebar tab
• registerPanel(panel: PanelDefinition) - Register a bottom panel
• showModal(modal: ModalDefinition) - Show a modal dialog
• showToast(message: string, type?: 'info' | 'success' | 'error') - Show a toast notification
• getEditor(type?: 'main' | 'note') - Get the active editor instance

Advanced APIs

• storage - Extension-scoped persistent storage
• pipeline - Hook into request/response lifecycle
• environment - Secure environment variable access
• helpers - Access helpers from other extensions

Electron Extension APIs

Core Methods

• registerIPCHandler(channel: string, handler: Function) - Register an IPC message handler
• sendToRenderer(channel: string, data: any) - Send message to renderer process
• registerMenuItem(menu: string, item: MenuItemDefinition) - Register a menu item
• registerProtocol(handler: ProtocolHandler) - Register custom URL protocol handler
• watchFileSystem(watcher: FSWatcherDefinition) - Watch file system changes
• spawn(command: string, args: string[]) - Spawn a child process
• exec(command: string) - Execute a shell command

Advanced APIs

• storage - Extension-scoped persistent storage
• app - Access to Electron app instance
• mainWindow - Access to main BrowserWindow

Shared Types

All shared types and utilities are available from @voiden/sdk/shared.

For complete API documentation with detailed examples, see the TypeScript definitions or check out our examples.

Examples

The examples directory contains complete, working examples:

• Hello World - Basic slash command and toast notifications
• More examples coming soon!

Using Examples

Each example is a standalone project you can use as a template:

cd examples/hello-world
npm install
npm run build

Then copy the built extension to your Voiden extensions directory.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

TypeScript errors about missing types

• Ensure all peer dependencies are installed: npm install react react-dom @tiptap/core @tiptap/pm @tiptap/react
• Check that your tsconfig.json includes "moduleResolution": "node"

Extension not loading in Voiden

• Verify your build output is in the correct format (ESM)
• Check the browser console for error messages
• Ensure your extension class is properly exported

IPC handlers not receiving messages

• Verify the channel name matches between UI and Electron extensions
• Check that the Electron extension is loaded before sending messages
• Use await when sending IPC messages that expect responses

Build errors

• Run npm run typecheck to see detailed TypeScript errors
• Ensure you're using Node.js 20.x or higher
• Clear dist folder and rebuild: rm -rf dist && npm run build

Getting Help

• Check existing issues
• Read the examples for working code
• Open a new issue with a minimal reproduction

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our Contributing Guide for details.

Development

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/VoidenHQ/sdk.git
cd sdk

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the SDK
npm run build

# Watch mode for development
npm run dev

# Type checking
npm run typecheck

Security

Found a security vulnerability? Please see our Security Policy for reporting instructions.

License

MIT - see LICENSE file for details.

Links

• npm Package
• GitHub Repository
• Issue Tracker
• Changelog

Community

• Code of Conduct
• Contributing Guidelines

Built with ❤️ by the Voiden team