Plugin Manifest Reference (module.json)

A plugin is described by two files at the module root: module.json (read by nwidart and by the Plugin Manager) and composer.json (read by Composer's merge plugin and checked on upload).

module.json

Modules/Stripe/module.json (a real, minimal manifest)

{
    "name": "Stripe",
    "alias": "stripe",
    "description": "Adds Stripe payment processing to TruPayments ...",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "author": "DotArtisan",
    "keywords": ["payments", "stripe", "gateway", "trupayments"],
    "priority": 1003,
    "requires": { "trupayments": "^1.0" },
    "providers": ["Modules\\Stripe\\Providers\\StripeServiceProvider"]
}

Required keys

Optional keys the platform understands

Unknown keys are ignored, so you can store your own metadata, and they are readable with Module::find('Name')->get('key').

composer.json

Modules/Booking/composer.json (trimmed)

{
    "name": "dotartisan/booking",
    "require": { "php": "^8.3", "astrotomic/laravel-translatable": "^11.16" },
    "autoload": {
        "files": ["booking.php"],
        "psr-4": {
            "Modules\\Booking\\": "app/",
            "Modules\\Booking\\Database\\Factories\\": "database/factories/",
            "Modules\\Booking\\Database\\Seeders\\": "database/seeders/"
        }
    },
    "autoload-dev": { "psr-4": { "Modules\\Booking\\Tests\\": "tests/" } }
}

• Required by the upload validator: the file exists, is valid JSON, and autoload.psr-4["Modules\\{Name}\\"] is exactly app (or app/). Otherwise: composer_json_missing, composer_json_invalid, autoload_invalid.
• autoload.files is how a module ships global helper functions (Booking's booking.php).
• The root composer.json contains "extra": {"merge-plugin": {"include": ["Modules/*/composer.json"]}}, so each module's autoload block is merged when you run composer dump-autoload / install / update.
• require entries in a module's composer.json are merged as well; a plugin that needs an extra PHP library must therefore be installed with Composer access (the Plugin Manager upload does not run Composer). Prefer dependency-free plugins for ZIP distribution, or document the Composer step.
• The package name can be anything; it is not used by TruCMS.

Directory conventions (nwidart generator paths)

config/modules.php defines where nwidart expects files. The ones that matter: providers and route provider in app/Providers, controllers app/Http/Controllers, models app/Models, config config (every PHP file is merged: config.php → config('alias')), migrations database/migrations, seeders database/seeders, translations lang, views resources/views, assets resources/assets (published to public/modules/{lowername} by php artisan module:publish Name), routes routes, tests tests/Feature and tests/Unit.

Reading the manifest at runtime

use Nwidart\Modules\Facades\Module;

Module::isEnabled('Testimonials');                    // bool, reads modules_statuses.json
Module::find('Testimonials')?->get('version');        // any manifest key
Module::allEnabled();                                 // enabled modules
Module::requirements('booking');                      // ['trupayments'] (macro added by TruCMS)
Module::requiredBy('trupayments');                    // collection of modules that require it
module_path('Testimonials', 'resources/views');       // helper: absolute path inside a module

Common manifest errors and fixes