Message Channel Specification

Overview

In addition to the task channel (which goes through the scheduler), Yeow also provides other non-scheduler channels. They are handled directly by the plugin thread and are not limited by scheduler time slices.

All channels use the same $send(channel, payload) entry point, where payload is an object containing the operation name and its arguments.

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Channel List

Channel	Description	Specification
task	Game tasks (enters the scheduler)	task module specification
timer	Timers	timer channel
fs	File system	fs channel
http	HTTP client / server	http channel
assets	Reading the plugin's built-in assets	assets channel
lifecycle	Lifecycle acknowledgement + resource reclamation	lifecycle channel
log	Logging	log channel
env	Runtime environment info + microsecond timestamps	See below
debug	Debugging / error reporting / Ping	debug channel
service	Service registration / request / subscribe / publish	service channel
util	gzip + UTF-8 ↔ byte conversion	util channel
worker	Virtual plugin (Worker) control / messaging	worker channel

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Common Channels

env

• Request: any string (synchronous)
• Return: object — environment info JSON:

{
  "cpus": 16,
  "memory": 17179869184,
  "arch": "windows-x64",
  "minecraftVersion": "1.21.4",
  "yeow": { "platform": "paper", "version": "0.5.0" },
  "now": 1723100000000000,
  "pluginDir": "plugins/my-plugin"
}

• cpus: number of CPU logical cores; memory: JVM total memory (bytes)
• arch: system architecture (<os>-<arch>, e.g. windows-x64)
• minecraftVersion: Minecraft version; yeow: runtime info (platform/version)
• now: epoch microseconds timestamp (communication overhead is on the microsecond scale, so nanoseconds are meaningless)
• pluginDir: plugin data directory path (e.g. plugins/<pluginName>; the former dir channel has been merged in; in a Worker it is the main plugin directory)

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Common Error Format

When a channel fails to execute, it returns:

{ "err": "<error message>" }