[blurbery]

Problem

Closes #42
Related issue: Silo-Server/silo-server#2380

A request-router plugin can't say it works without an API key or a base URL. Silo skips every router connection whose key is empty, and its admin form won't save a server without both. A router that talks to a local tool, or authenticates some other way, never receives a request unless the admin types in a dummy key.

Approach

RequestRouterDescriptor gets two plain booleans, api_key_optional = 4 and base_url_optional = 5, read from the manifest like the existing flags.

silo-server#2380 suggested requires_api_key and requires_base_url, defaulting to true. A proto3 bool can't default to true, and this descriptor's contract is that an absent descriptor means every flag is false. Naming the flags the other way round keeps that contract. Unset flags, an absent descriptor, a host on an older SDK, and code that reads the generated getters all mean "needs both", which is how every router is treated today. An optional bool with presence would have needed a nil-means-true helper, and a host that forgot it would treat every existing router as key-less.

The proto comments, a new "API key and base URL" section in the README, and docs/compatibility.md cover:

• what a host does with each flag;
• what older hosts do;
• that hosts read the flags from the capability metadata stored when a plugin is installed or updated.

The README also notes that httpclient still refuses an empty key or URL, so a key-less router needs its own client.

Release impact: additive, so a minor release. docs/compatibility.md says "added in v0.26.0", following the README's release rules.

Downstream: silo-server reads the flags for routing, status checks, the connection test and the admin form in Silo-Server/silo-server#2439. That PR builds on this one and stays a draft until a release with these fields is tagged. No first-party router needs a change, because the Sonarr/Radarr and Seerr plugins need both.

Validation

• go test for ./pkg/pluginsdk/manifest/, ./pkg/pluginsdk/convert/ and ./pkg/pluginproto/silo/plugin/v1/: pass. The new tests cover:
  • loading both flags from a manifest;
  • manifests without them, with other flags or with no descriptor;
  • the stored-capability round trip for each flag and the stored JSON field names;
  • unchanged stored metadata for a plugin without the flags;
  • decoding metadata stored before the flags existed.
• go vet on those packages: clean. go build of all four examples: pass.
• Regenerated with buf generate using protoc-gen-go v1.36.11 and protoc-gen-go-grpc v1.6.1. Only request_router.pb.go changes. protoc isn't installed here, so I ran buf generate directly rather than make proto; buf compiles the protos itself.
• buf lint: no new findings, the same 70 as v0.25.0. buf breaking against v0.25.0: pass.
• gofmt -l on the touched packages: clean. Across the repo it lists pkg/pluginsdk/runtime/scan_source_test.go, which this PR doesn't touch and which main already lists.
• The silo-server change builds and passes its tests against this branch through a local go.work.
• Not run locally: go test ./... across the whole repo. CI runs it.

Risks

• Existing plugins and hosts: no change. Unset flags add no keys to stored metadata and decode as before.
• A plugin that sets api_key_optional is still skipped by a host that predates it, so on such a host it works only with a key entered.
• Silo reads a bare plugin binary's manifest strictly, so a Silo version built on an older SDK refuses to install a binary that declares the flags. An archive installs. The docs say so, and A plugin whose manifest has fields the server doesn't know can't be uploaded as a binary or started silo-server#2436 tracks the fix.
• Hosts read the flags from metadata stored when the plugin was installed or updated. A plugin stored by a host on an older SDK lacks them until it is next updated.
• The two JSON names become part of the manifest contract once tagged.

Checklist

• I read and can explain the complete diff.
• This pull request addresses one concern.

AI Disclosure

• Harness: Claude Code (Claude desktop app)

• Tool(s): Claude Code, Claude Code subagents for exploration and review, GitHub CLI, buf

• Model(s): claude-opus-5-5

• Involvement: AI-assisted with Claude Opus. I directed the task and designed the work.

• Adversarial review: a separate Claude Code subagent reviewed the diff. It covered the proto contract, the generated code, buf lint and breaking checks, and how manifests are loaded, stored and decoded. It found three problems in the docs, which also had test gaps:

  • sentences that overstated what hosts enforce;
  • advice to reinstall a plugin, which gives it a new installation ID and unbinds its servers;
  • no mention that httpclient refuses an empty key or URL.

  All of these are fixed in 8336f80. Testing the flags live on a Silo dev build then showed the strict binary-manifest parse above, and 076eab6 documents it.

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[silo-kody]

Silo Kody — review complete

Review finished. Check the inline comments for findings and verify each suggestion against the code and tests.

Reviewing changes in Silo

• Include the related issue, expected behavior, and validation steps in the PR description.
• For API changes, describe the effect on Apple and Android clients and Jellyfin compatibility.
• For plugin changes, identify the affected SDK contract, plugin, and catalog entry.
• Follow this repository's AGENTS.md and CONTRIBUTING.md.
• Request another review with @kody start-review in a PR comment.
• React with 👍 or 👎 to give feedback on individual suggestions.

Review settings

Review Options

The following review options are enabled or disabled:

Options	Enabled
Bug	✅
Performance	✅
Security	✅
Business Logic	❌

⚠️ 2 Kody Rule(s) were not evaluated

These rules declare that they need repository context beyond this diff, and the review could not retrieve it, so they were not judged on this pull request:

• Share optional authentication service resolution across interface types
• Find the last complete-line boundary with bounded memory