How sources and plugins work

Install source plugins to search anime sites and watch their videos in Aikatsu.

Plugins are small Rhai scripts that work on desktop and Android.

Plugin, source, repo: what's the difference?

• A source is a site you can search and watch from.
• A plugin is the script that supports that source.
• A repo groups scripts with an index.json that describes them and records their checksums.

In everyday use, a source and its plugin are almost the same thing. You add a repo, then switch its individual sources on or off.

Kyoko

Kyoko is the official plugin repo. It's listed by default, and you can remove it or add it again from the Plugins page.

A repo can contain several sources. You're free to leave only the ones you use enabled.

Check and install updates

With startup checks enabled, Aikatsu checks your repos and shows how many updates are available. Your installed plugins stay as they are until you download the updates.

If something is available, a dialog offers Later or View updates. The Plugins page shows a download icon. Use it to apply available updates across your added repos.

You can also check manually, even with startup checks switched off. Adding a new repo downloads its scripts right away.

What a plugin can access

Plugins can make network requests, parse HTML and JSON, process strings, and keep a small temporary cache. They can't read your watch history, settings, or arbitrary files through the host API.

They can still send searches and playback requests to websites and choose the video URLs the app opens. Add third-party repos only if you trust their authors. Checksums confirm that downloads match the repo index. They do not prove a script is safe.

Make a plugin

You don't need to rebuild the whole app for each source change. Start with your first plugin, test it with the CLI, and publish a repo people can add in Settings.