I’m a little worried: I’m really looking forward to the API release, imagining that ideas for Anytype plugins would just start to fly. Unfortunately, I don’t see such enthusiasm! Everything mainly revolves around MCP.
What could be the reasons:
It takes time to implement a version of the API that would allow the appearance of plugins?
There are no developers who use Anytype and there are no developers who are interested in developing plugins for it?
Anytype is still in beta and the developers are in no hurry, but are waiting for at least the first stable version?
Other reasons.
Here’s what I would like to see as a user who uses Anytype:
Plugins for importing information from external sources with one click: information about books, movies, TV series, music, podcasts, recipes, etc… This will save a lot of time and create collections quickly.
Expanding the work with projects and tasks: recurring tasks, deadline and postponement notifications, presenting them in a calendar, synchronizing with external calendars, etc.
Tracking habits: easy tracking (recurrence, setting a deadline, etc.) and displaying statistics for the past period.
Productivity plugins: pomodoro, Eisenhower matrix, timers and tracking work on a given project, etc.
Any specialized plugins that help integrate a given type of activity into Anytype.
Availability of themes and changing the interface: adding various functionalities that improve the work with Anytype.
On the other hand I am worried because the users want too much from Anytype.
The core app and experience is sometimes so buggy and quirky while new features get added all the time (and it’s still not enough).
I would rather like to see a more polished core app. less bugs in general, a better editor, consistent UI patterns and a functioning backup / import / export functionality.
Tbh, I would block new feature requests and truly focus on bugs only. So BR requests have full priority. It’s not like feature request get the full attention anyway and it’s understandable because it’s so much. I truly hope we get a second Obsidian type of development. Obsidian itself isn’t extremely feature packed without plugins but stable asf. Let’s hope Anytype doesn’t get abandoned at some point or sold to a big company…
But my top plugin request would be whiteboard / handwritten to text. I do a lot of free hand diagrams with my notes and prefer how Anytype stores image files vs Obsidian or Notion.
I see and don’t want to dampen your expectations with the API then. As I’ve seen it the API is not for plugin development but it opens up a local server on your machine where other apps could send and retrieve data to / from. I don’t think there is a real plugin ecosystem in the works (where others can write JS/React components that get loaded by Anytype).
I think there are a few reasons why there are (almost) no plugins for Anytype.
The development of Anytype is still all over the place, focus has shifted a lot the last two years. Why develop a toggle plugin if it’s on the roadmap (though it’s in the backlog) for example. Ones development is in a more stable place people are more willing to invest time to make plugins.
Then the core/foundation of the app is not solid enough in my opinion. For example, how do I as a user instal a plugin?
This needs to be a simple in app process (like obsidian) so users can easily use and remove plugins and themes. I mean, I have seen users make custom themes for Anytype but I have no idea how to install them and no interest in learning how to. Make this simple and you get more demand, why invest time in making a plugin/theme if hardly anyone is going to use it?
And last, the userbase is still relative small.
To awnser your question what are my desired plugins?
I am not a fan of plugins, even in Obsidian I use a little as possible because I don’t want to rely on user made plugins that might get abandonned or broken with the next update of the app. I don’t want my workflow to be locked into an app/plugin.
For example, in Anytype I would love a daily notes plugin with a few features that are very useful but if that plugin is removed won’t impact my space. Like a calendar widget where I can click on a day and it automaticly makes an object where the title is the date of that day and that shows which days have a daily note already.
Removing such a plugin only impacts the ease of making daily notes, nothing more.
