---
title: "Admin plugins"
description: "Writing an @rsc-kit/press plugin, publishing it as a package, and selling it."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rsc-kit.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Admin plugins

A plugin is a plain object that adds to an [admin panel](/guides/admin/)
without changing its code. Everything in one is something an app could write
itself; a plugin is the same thing in a package, so it can be installed,
versioned and sold.

```ts
interface PanelPlugin {
  name: string                                   // unique in a panel: the package name
  resources?: Resource[]                         // shown as if the app defined them
  widgets?: Widget[]                             // dashboard cards
  onChange?: (change: RecordChange) => void | Promise<void>
}
```

## A whole plugin

An audit log: it records every save and delete, and shows the latest on the
dashboard.

```tsx title="src/index.tsx"
import { definePlugin } from '@rsc-kit/press'
import type { RecordChange, Tenant } from '@rsc-kit/press'

export function auditLog({ keep = 50 }: { keep?: number } = {}) {
  const entries: (RecordChange & { at: Date })[] = []

  function Recent({ tenant }: { tenant: Tenant | null }) {
const mine = entries.filter((entry) => entry.tenant?.id === tenant?.id).slice(0, 6)

return (
  <ul className="space-y-2 text-sm">
    {mine.map((entry, i) => (
      <li key={i}>{entry.change} {entry.resource} #{entry.id}</li>
    ))}
  </ul>
)
  }

  return definePlugin({
name: 'audit-log',
widgets: [{ title: 'Recent activity', component: Recent }],
onChange(change) {
  entries.unshift({ ...change, at: new Date() })
  entries.length = Math.min(entries.length, keep)
},
  })
}
```

Export a function that takes the plugin's options and returns the plugin, so
an app writes `plugins: [auditLog({ keep: 500 })]`.

- **A widget is a server component**, given the current `tenant`. It can be
  `async` and read data; show that tenant's numbers, never everyone's.
- **`onChange` runs after the record is written.** A plugin that throws is
  logged and does not undo the change or fail the save - the person saving is
  not the plugin's audience. Do slow work (an email, a webhook) without making
  the save wait on it.
- **`change.tenant`** is whose record it was, in a panel with tenants. Keep
  what you store split by it.
- **Resources** a plugin adds are ordinary `defineResource` resources. A name
  shared with one of the app's is refused when the panel is defined, as is the
  same plugin installed twice.

## Publishing it

```json title="package.json"
{
  "name": "rsc-kit-admin-audit-log",
  "type": "module",
  "keywords": ["rsc-kit", "rsc-kit-admin-plugin"],
  "exports": { ".": "./dist/index.js", "./styles.css": "./dist/styles.css" },
  "peerDependencies": { "@rsc-kit/press": "^0.30.40", "react": "^19" }
}
```

- `@rsc-kit/press` and React are **peers**, never dependencies: two copies of
  either in one app break.
- Ship compiled JavaScript, not TypeScript source.
- Style with Tailwind classes and the shadcn theme's colours (`text-muted-foreground`,
  `bg-card`), so the plugin matches the app it is installed in. If it has
  components, ship a `styles.css` with `@source "./";` and tell the app to
  import it, as the panel itself does.
- The `rsc-kit-admin-plugin` keyword is how plugins are found: search npm for
  `keywords:rsc-kit-admin-plugin`.

## Selling it

A paid plugin is an npm package behind a licence. The ways that work today,
the same as Filament's paid plugins:

- **A private registry with a licence key** - Anystack, Lemon Squeezy, or
  your own. The buyer adds a scoped registry to `.npmrc` with their key as the
  token, and installs as usual:

```ini title=".npmrc"
  @acme:registry=https://npm.acme.dev/
  //npm.acme.dev/:_authToken=${ACME_LICENSE_KEY}
```

- **A private GitHub repository** the buyer is invited to on purchase, installed
  with `bun add github:acme/admin-plugin`.

Keep a free listing on npm - the README and the keyword - pointing at where it
is sold, so it is found the same way a free plugin is.

Source: https://docs.rsc-kit.dev/guides/admin-plugins/index.mdx