Publish to the marketplace

The marketplace at https://www.flatbb.com/market lists plugins that people can install from Admin → Plugins → Market. Publishing is one command; an AI assistant can run it for you.

1. Get a token#

Sign in at https://www.flatbb.com, open Settings → Developer, create a token (fbk_…). Keep it secret. Set it once:

export FLATBB_TOKEN=fbk_xxxxxxxx        # Linux/macOS
setx FLATBB_TOKEN fbk_xxxxxxxx          # Windows (new shells)

or store it in data/config.php as 'market_token' => 'fbk_…' (the file is never web-accessible).

From a forum's admin panel none of this is needed: Marketplace → Account → Connect sends you to www.flatbb.com to approve, and the token is handed to the forum without copying anything.

2. Prepare the plugin#

• plugins/<id>/plugin.php with a complete manifest (id, name, version, description, author, url).
• plugins/<id>/README.md — becomes the marketplace page: what it does, settings, screenshots (relative image paths inside the plugin folder are allowed).
• Bump version for every release; the marketplace rejects a version that already exists.
• Run the checks:

php flatbb plugin:check <id>

3. Publish#

From the browser: zip the plugin folder and upload it at https://www.flatbb.com/market/publish (signed in). The manifest is read from plugin.php, README.md becomes the plugin page. The form also takes a changelog (several lines) and up to five screenshots (jpg, png, gif or webp, 2 MB each); the first screenshot is the cover in the plugin list. Every plugin on the marketplace is free.

Every plugin is listed in one category (Media, Moderation, Security & Spam…). The category is not part of the plugin: you choose it in the form when you publish, and you can change it at any time under Manage. The list is kept by the marketplace and can change; GET https://www.flatbb.com/api/market/categories returns it. Themes have no category.

From the command line:

php flatbb plugin:publish <id> --changelog="What changed in this version" --images=shot1.png,shot2.png

The command packages plugins/<id>/ into dist/<id>-<version>.zip, re-runs the checks and uploads it. On success it prints the marketplace URL. A new plugin is listed right away as Community (it passed the automatic checks: syntax, prefixes, no executables, matching manifest) and becomes Certified once a marketplace reviewer has looked at it; forum admins see the badge in the marketplace and are asked to confirm before installing a community plugin. Updates to a listed plugin go live immediately unless the automated checks flag something.

Options: --images=a.png,b.png uploads screenshots (up to five; they replace the ones already on the plugin page, leave the flag out to keep them); --token=… overrides the environment; --insecure skips TLS verification when your PHP has no CA bundle (typical on Windows). --insecure skips TLS verification when your PHP has no CA bundle (typical on Windows: better set curl.cainfo in php.ini). --confirm-other=1 is needed when a marketplace administrator republishes a plugin id that belongs to another developer (the answer names the owner otherwise). The command line does not send a category: a new plugin published this way is listed under Other until you pick its category under Manage; an update keeps the category it has.

4. Let an AI do it#

The repository ships a Claude Code skill (.claude/skills/flatbb-plugin/) and the /publish-plugin command. In Claude Code:

/publish-plugin hello

or simply: "Bump the version of the hello plugin, run the checks and publish it to www.flatbb.com". The assistant reads docs/PLUGIN.md, runs plugin:check, fixes findings, bumps the version, and runs plugin:publish. It never sees the token: the CLI reads FLATBB_TOKEN from the environment.

5. From the admin panel#

Admin → Plugins → Publish on a plugin row opens the same form in the admin panel: category, changelog, screenshots, and the developer token the first time (it is then stored in the plugin settings, admin-only). When the plugin is not yours (the marketplace lists it under another developer, or the manifest names another author), the form says so and asks for a confirmation tick before it publishes; the marketplace itself refuses another developer's id unless your account is one of its administrators, and even then only with that confirmation.

The category, the screenshots and the changelog of the latest version can be changed later without publishing a new version: on www.flatbb.com go to Settings → Developer → My plugins → Manage.

API (for other tools)#

POST https://www.flatbb.com/api/market/publish — multipart form, Authorization: Bearer <token>:

Response: {"ok":true,"url":"https://www.flatbb.com/market/<id>"} or {"ok":false,"error":"…"}.

Read endpoints used by the Market page: GET /api/market/plugins?q=&page=, GET /api/market/plugins/<id>, GET /api/market/plugins/<id>/download?version=, GET /api/market/core/latest.

Plugins that cost points#

Set a number of points on the plugin's Manage page (My plugins → Manage on www.flatbb.com); 0, the default, means free. A member gets the plugin once with the points of their account: they pay N, you receive N, the marketplace keeps nothing, and the plugin stays theirs through every later version. Their forum installs it with the account connected (Admin → Plugins → Marketplace → Account → token), or they download the zip from the plugin page after "Get for N points". Refunds are done by the marketplace staff (Market review → Purchases). Nothing changes in the package: a plugin that costs points is written like a free one.

API: POST /api/market/buy with id= and the account's Bearer token answers {"ok":true,"message":…,"points":balance} or 402 with the reason; GET /api/market/whoami returns username, points and purchased (plugin ids); a download of a plugin that costs points needs the Bearer token of an account that has it (else 402).