← Addonium

4. Distribution Formats

Addonium addons travel in exactly two file shapes:

FormatUsed byContains
manifest.jsonOpen and Locked addonsIdentity, capabilities, and (for Locked) either an auth block describing how to obtain/attach a token, or a pre-tokenized baseUrl.
Compiled module (.aium file, or a .js/.mjs bundle)Locked addons onlyA single portable script implementing the module contract (§9), distributed alongside (never inside) a key the host uses to decrypt/authorize it at load time.

A Locked Addon MAY offer both simultaneously - e.g. a hosted API for casual use and a compiled module for offline/embedded use - as long as both honor the same auth/allowlist rules.

An addon is installed by a host in one of these ways:

  1. URL install (HTTP addons): user pastes a base URL or a manifest.json URL. Works for both Open and Locked (tokenized) addons.
  2. File install (compiled modules): user imports a .aium file plus, for Locked modules, a separate key (pasted, scanned as QR, or imported as a small .aiumkey file). The key is never bundled inside the module file.
  3. Registry install (optional): host resolves an addonium:// URI or an entry from an index (§12.4) to one of the above.