plugin-lifecycle

The plugin-lifecycle skill provides a robust, safety-first framework for managing the entire development and deployment lifecycle of JUCE audio plugins on macOS. Designed for developers and sound designers, it automates critical administrative tasks such as binary deployment, environment cleanup, and state synchronization, ensuring that the development workspace remains clean and compatible with professional DAWs like Ableton Live and Logic Pro.

• Automated Deployment: Handles installation of VST3 and AU formats to standard macOS plugin directories, including automatic binary verification and file permission management (755).

• Surgical Rollbacks: Provides a reset-to-ideation mode that removes implementation files while preserving creative concepts, mockups, and intellectual assets.

• Data Integrity: Features a 'Destroy' mode that creates a full backup before performing a complete removal, ensuring no work is lost during nuclear cleanup operations.

• Cache Management: Integrates automated cache clearing for major DAWs to prevent plugin loading conflicts or ghosting of old versions.

• State Tracking: Synchronizes progress with a centralized PLUGINS.md file, maintaining clear visibility into the status, location, and history of every plugin in the repository.

• The skill functions via specific commands like /install-plugin, /uninstall, /reset-to-ideation, /destroy, and /clean for interactive management.

• Requires macOS environment; targets standard system directories including ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/.

• Follows strict blocking validation steps during installation: Build Verification, Product Name Extraction, Old Version Removal, Copy, Permission Setting, Cache Clearing, and Final Verification.

• Operates in multiple modes based on user command, loading only the necessary reference files (installation, uninstallation, reset, or destroy) to optimize context window efficiency.

• Safety mechanisms include manual confirmation steps and mandatory backup creation before any destructive operation, with support for restoring from rollback archives if a mistake occurs.