Build

How to author Plasma components — the reusable units that make up packages.

A component is a directory under src/<layer>/<kind>/<name>/ with metadata, build tasks, defaults, and templates. Plasma standardizes how components are structured, configured, and built, so that anything from a single function to a full application follows the same rules.

Principles you'll meet everywhere

• Builders, not raw tooling. Never call docker or kubectl directly — components declare intent and a builder produces the artifact.
• Configure at the service level, never the application level. Applications orchestrate; services configure.
• Variables carry environment decisions (machine_env), never {% if %} logic inside templates.
• Prefix every variable with its component name to avoid collisions.

In this section

• Component anatomy — files, metadata (MRN/MRK/MRV), the lifecycle
• Configuration — the service-level rule, method preference, environment-conditional config
• Templates & filters — Jinja2 templates and Plasma's machine filters
• Entity schemas — Protobuf as source of truth, JSON Schema generation, the registry
• Kubernetes patterns — manifests, annotations, registry auth, service accounts, ingress/TLS
• Defining agents — triggers, skill repertoires, channel configuration

See also the Component model concept page for the why.