Marketplace Format Specification

A marketplace is a Git repository that indexes Babysitter blueprints via a marketplace.json manifest. The babysitter SDK clones these repositories locally and reads the manifest to discover available blueprints.

marketplace.json Schema

The root manifest file must be named marketplace.json and placed at the repository root.

Top-Level Fields

MarketplacePluginEntry Fields

Each key in the plugins object is the plugin name (e.g., "babysitter@a5c.ai"), and each value has the following structure:

Example marketplace.json

{
  "name": "babysitter-marketplace",
  "description": "Official marketplace for Babysitter blueprints",
  "url": "https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter-marketplace.git",
  "owner": "a5c-ai",
  "plugins": {
    "babysitter@a5c.ai": {
      "name": "babysitter@a5c.ai",
      "description": "Core Babysitter blueprint for AI-assisted development workflows",
      "latestVersion": "0.0.176",
      "versions": ["0.0.176", "0.0.175", "0.0.174"],
      "packagePath": "plugins/babysitter-unified",
      "tags": ["core", "development", "ai"],
      "author": "a5c-ai"
    },
    "code-review@a5c.ai": {
      "name": "code-review@a5c.ai",
      "description": "Automated code review plugin",
      "latestVersion": "1.2.0",
      "versions": ["1.2.0", "1.1.0", "1.0.0"],
      "packagePath": "plugins/code-review",
      "tags": ["review", "quality"],
      "author": "a5c-ai"
    }
  }
}

Repository Directory Structure

A marketplace repository should follow this layout:

babysitter-marketplace/
  marketplace.json            # Manifest (required)
  plugins/
    babysitter-unified/       # Blueprint package directory
      install.md
      uninstall.md
      configure.md
      install-process.js
      migrations/
        0.0.174_to_0.0.175.md
        0.0.175_to_0.0.176.md
    code-review/
      install.md
      uninstall.md
      configure.md
      migrations/
        1.0.0_to_1.1.0.md
        1.1.0_to_1.2.0.md

The packagePath field in each blueprint entry points to the relative path within the repository or marketplace checkout (for example, "plugins/babysitter-unified" in this repo).

Local Clone Structure

When a marketplace is cloned via blueprints:add-marketplace, it is stored under the babysitter configuration directory:

• **Global scope**: ~/.a5c/blueprints/marketplaces/<marketplace-name>/
• **Project scope**: <projectDir>/.a5c/blueprints/marketplaces/<marketplace-name>/

The marketplace name is derived from the Git URL (the repository name without the .git suffix). For example, cloning https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter-marketplace.git produces a directory named babysitter-marketplace.

Version Tracking

The latestVersion field in each blueprint entry determines the default version used during blueprints:install when no --plugin-version flag is provided. The versions array provides a complete history for reference, listed newest first.

Version strings follow semantic versioning conventions (e.g., 1.0.0, 2.0.0-beta.1). Pre-release identifiers with dashes and dots are supported.

Creating a Marketplace Repository

1. Create a new Git repository.

2. Create a marketplace.json at the root with the schema described above.

3. Create blueprint package directories under a conventional path (typically plugins/).

4. For each plugin, add an entry to marketplace.json with the packagePath pointing to the blueprint package directory.

5. Push the repository to a Git remote (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or any Git-accessible URL).

6. Users can then add the marketplace: ``bash babysitter blueprints:add-marketplace --marketplace-url <your-repo-url> --global ``

Updating the Marketplace

When you release a new blueprint version:

1. Update the blueprint package directory with new instruction files and migration files. 2. Update the latestVersion field in marketplace.json. 3. Add the new version to the front of the versions array. 4. Commit and push the changes.

Users update their local clone with:

babysitter blueprints:update-marketplace --marketplace-name <name> --global

TypeScript Interfaces

The marketplace types are defined in packages/babysitter-sdk/src/blueprints/types.ts:

• MarketplaceManifest -- The full manifest structure
• MarketplacePluginEntry -- A single blueprint entry within the manifest
• MARKETPLACE_MANIFEST_FILENAME -- The constant "marketplace.json"