The dev loop

phantom-plugin dev runs your plugin inside Phantom while you work on it. Components hot reload, the logic reloads when its code changes, and the manifest is checked every time you save.

The CLI is @phantomclient/plugin-cli. New plugins already depend on it and have a script for each command:

npm run dev        # phantom-plugin dev
npm run build      # phantom-plugin build
npm run validate   # phantom-plugin validate
npm run pack       # phantom-plugin pack

Start it

npm run dev

This serves the plugin on port 5299. Phantom looks for dev plugins on ports 5299 to 5309, so if you're running more than one, give each its own port:

phantom-plugin dev --port 5300

Turn on Developer mode

In Phantom, open Plugins and turn on Developer mode. Your plugin shows up marked Development. It's served from the dev server rather than installed, but it follows the same rules as a store plugin and asks for its permissions the first time it runs.

Pick the games it runs on in its Games tab.

What reloads

• Views (panels, pages, canvas widgets and command views) hot reload in place when the component changes.
• Logic (setup and commands) reloads in place when its code changes, without restarting the game or Phantom. Whatever setup returned runs first and is waited for. Then everything the old code's SDK still held is released (hooks, UI rules, overlays, watches, keys, traffic subscriptions, ctx listeners), and setup runs again with the new code. If the new setup throws, the plugin shows the error and stack, and the next save tries again.
• The manifest is read again when package.json changes. Add a permission and the player is asked again, like with an update.

Turning the plugin off or closing its game runs the same cleanup. If your plugin draws in the game, return something from setup that removes the drawing, or it stays after the plugin stops.