Publishing cogs for Red V3

Users of Red install 3rd-party cogs using Downloader cog. To make your cog available to install for others, you will have to create a git repository and publish it on git repository hosting (for example GitHub)

Repository Template

We have standardized what a repository’s structure should look like to better assist our Downloader system and provide essential information to the Red portal.

The main repository should contain at a minimum:

We also recommend adding a license and README file with general information about the repository.

For a simple example of what this might look like when finished, take a look at our example template.

Info.json format

The optional info.json file may exist inside every package folder in the repo, as well as in the root of the repo. The following sections describe the valid keys within an info file (and maybe how the Downloader cog uses them).

Keys common to both repo and cog info.json (case sensitive)

  • author (list of strings) - list of names of authors of the cog or repo.

  • description (string) - A long description of the cog or repo. For cogs, this is displayed when a user executes [p]cog info.

  • install_msg (string) - The message that gets displayed when a cog is installed or a repo is added

    Tip

    You can use the [p] key in your string to use the prefix used for installing.

  • short (string) - A short description of the cog or repo. For cogs, this info is displayed when a user executes [p]cog list

Keys specific to the cog info.json (case sensitive)

  • end_user_data_statement (string) - A statement explaining what end user data the cog is storing. This is displayed when a user executes [p]cog info. If the statement has changed since last update, user will be informed during the update.

  • min_bot_version (string) - Min version number of Red in the format MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO

  • max_bot_version (string) - Max version number of Red in the format MAJOR.MINOR.MICRO, if min_bot_version is newer than max_bot_version, max_bot_version will be ignored

  • min_python_version (list of integers) - Min version number of Python in the format [MAJOR, MINOR, PATCH]

  • hidden (bool) - Determines if a cog is visible in the cog list for a repo.

  • disabled (bool) - Determines if a cog is available for install.

  • required_cogs (dict mapping a cog name to repo URL) - A dict of required cogs that this cog depends on in the format {cog_name : repo_url}. Downloader will not deal with this functionality but it may be useful for other cogs.

  • requirements (list of strings) - list of required libraries that are passed to pip on cog install. SHARED_LIBRARIES do NOT go in this list.

  • tags (list of strings) - A list of strings that are related to the functionality of the cog. Used to aid in searching.

  • type (string) - Optional, defaults to COG. Must be either COG or SHARED_LIBRARY. If SHARED_LIBRARY then hidden will be True.

Warning

Shared libraries are deprecated since version 3.2 and are marked for removal in the future.

Adding to the Index

Repositories that are correctly configured can be added to the public index of cogs.

To be added to the index, make a pull request to the Red-Index repository in the unapproved section. You can learn more about this process in the repository description.

To be added to the approved repositories, first see Becoming an Approved Cog Creator.