Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Yes.
The current plugin discovery and installation flow is still too manual and fragmented. Users need to browse the plugin list page, open external release pages, compare plugins by themselves, and then download and install each plugin manually.
This causes several problems:
- It is inconvenient to discover available plugins in one place.
- Similar or overlapping plugins are hard to compare.
- It is not easy to understand what each plugin does before opening its page.
- Legacy, deprecated, or replacement plugins are not clearly structured for users.
- There is no simple way to automatically fetch plugin metadata for external tools or future in-app integration.
Describe the solution you'd like
I would like QuickLook to provide an official machine-readable plugin catalog, such as a plugins.json manifest, or an official plugin browser page/API.
Each plugin entry could include fields like:
- name
- repository
- description
- supported file types / extensions
- latest version
- release page
- direct download URL
- maintained / deprecated status
- replacement plugin (if any)
- compatibility notes
- short explanation of why a user might choose this plugin
With this, QuickLook could support:
- easier plugin listing and search
- clearer plugin explanations
- filtering by file type or category
- one-click download / install / update in the future
- easier support for third-party tooling and automation
Describe alternatives you've considered
One alternative is to keep using the current wiki page and manually open each plugin page when needed.
Another alternative is to build an external script or scraper that parses the plugin list page and extracts plugin information automatically. However, this is less reliable, harder to maintain, and depends on page structure instead of an official stable format.
Because of that, an official manifest or structured plugin catalog would be a much better long-term solution.
Additional context
This request is not only about convenience for manual users, but also about future extensibility.
If QuickLook provides an official structured plugin source, it would make it possible to build:
- better plugin discovery tools
- automatic plugin listing and explanation
- update checkers
- possible in-app plugin installation in the future
Even if full one-click installation is not implemented immediately, having an official structured catalog would already be a big improvement.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Yes.
The current plugin discovery and installation flow is still too manual and fragmented. Users need to browse the plugin list page, open external release pages, compare plugins by themselves, and then download and install each plugin manually.
This causes several problems:
Describe the solution you'd like
I would like QuickLook to provide an official machine-readable plugin catalog, such as a
plugins.jsonmanifest, or an official plugin browser page/API.Each plugin entry could include fields like:
With this, QuickLook could support:
Describe alternatives you've considered
One alternative is to keep using the current wiki page and manually open each plugin page when needed.
Another alternative is to build an external script or scraper that parses the plugin list page and extracts plugin information automatically. However, this is less reliable, harder to maintain, and depends on page structure instead of an official stable format.
Because of that, an official manifest or structured plugin catalog would be a much better long-term solution.
Additional context
This request is not only about convenience for manual users, but also about future extensibility.
If QuickLook provides an official structured plugin source, it would make it possible to build:
Even if full one-click installation is not implemented immediately, having an official structured catalog would already be a big improvement.