botserver/APP_LAUNCHER_INTEGRATION.md

App Launcher Integration Guide

Overview

The apps-manifest.json file provides a complete mapping between Cargo.toml features and user-friendly app descriptions for the botui app launcher.

File Location

botserver/apps-manifest.json

Structure

Categories

Apps are organized into 8 categories:

1. Communication (💬) - Chat, Mail, Meet, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.
2. Productivity (⚡) - Tasks, Calendar, Project, Goals, Workspaces, etc.
3. Documents (📄) - Drive, Docs, Sheet, Slides, Paper
4. Media (🎬) - Video, Player, Canvas
5. Learning (📚) - Learn, Research, Sources
6. Analytics (📈) - Analytics, Dashboards, Monitoring
7. Development (⚙️) - Automation, Designer, Editor
8. Administration (🔐) - Attendant, Security, Settings, Directory
9. Core (🏗️) - Cache, LLM, Vector DB

App Schema

Each app includes:

{
  "id": "tasks",
  "name": "Tasks",
  "description": "Task management with scheduling",
  "feature": "tasks",
  "icon": "✅",
  "enabled_by_default": true,
  "dependencies": ["automation", "drive", "monitoring"]
}

Bundles

Pre-configured feature sets:

• minimal - Essential infrastructure (chat, automation, drive, cache)
• lightweight - Basic productivity (chat, drive, tasks, people)
• full - Complete feature set
• communications - All communication apps
• productivity - Productivity suite
• documents - Document suite

Integration with botui

Reading the Manifest

// In botui/ui/suite/js/app-launcher.js
fetch('/api/apps/manifest')
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(manifest => {
    renderAppLauncher(manifest);
  });

Rendering Apps

function renderAppLauncher(manifest) {
  const categories = manifest.categories;
  
  for (const [categoryId, category] of Object.entries(categories)) {
    const categoryEl = createCategory(category);
    
    category.apps.forEach(app => {
      const appCard = createAppCard(app);
      categoryEl.appendChild(appCard);
    });
  }
}

App Card Template

<div class="app-card" data-feature="${app.feature}">
  <div class="app-icon">${app.icon}</div>
  <div class="app-name">${app.name}</div>
  <div class="app-description">${app.description}</div>
  <div class="app-toggle">
    <input type="checkbox" 
           ${app.enabled_by_default ? 'checked' : ''}
           ${app.core_dependency ? 'disabled' : ''}>
  </div>
  ${app.dependencies.length > 0 ? 
    `<div class="app-deps">Requires: ${app.dependencies.join(', ')}</div>` 
    : ''}
</div>

Backend API Endpoint

Add to botserver/src/main.rs:

async fn get_apps_manifest() -> Json<serde_json::Value> {
    let manifest = include_str!("../apps-manifest.json");
    let value: serde_json::Value = serde_json::from_str(manifest)
        .expect("Invalid apps-manifest.json");
    Json(value)
}

// In router configuration:
api_router = api_router.route("/api/apps/manifest", get(get_apps_manifest));

Compilation Testing

Use the test_apps.sh script to verify all apps compile:

cd /home/rodriguez/src/gb
./test_apps.sh

This will:

1. Test each app feature individually
2. Report which apps pass/fail compilation
3. Provide a summary of results

Core Dependencies

These apps cannot be disabled (marked with core_dependency: true):

• automation - Required for .gbot script execution
• drive - S3 storage used throughout
• cache - Redis integrated into sessions

Feature Bundling

When a user enables an app, all its dependencies are automatically enabled:

• Enable tasks → Automatically enables automation, drive, monitoring
• Enable mail → Automatically enables mail_core, drive
• Enable research → Automatically enables llm, vectordb

Syncing with Cargo.toml

When adding new features to Cargo.toml:

1. Add the feature definition in Cargo.toml
2. Add the app entry in apps-manifest.json
3. Update the app launcher UI in botui
4. Run ./test_apps.sh to verify compilation
5. Commit both files together

Example: Adding a New App

1. In Cargo.toml

[features]
myapp = ["dep:myapp-crate", "drive"]

2. In apps-manifest.json

{
  "id": "myapp",
  "name": "My App",
  "description": "My awesome app",
  "feature": "myapp",
  "icon": "🚀",
  "enabled_by_default": false,
  "dependencies": ["drive"]
}

3. Test

cargo check -p botserver --no-default-features --features myapp

Notes

• Icons use emoji for cross-platform compatibility
• Dependencies are automatically resolved by Cargo
• Core dependencies are shown but cannot be toggled off
• The manifest version matches botserver version