plugin.h File Reference

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Functions
mln_plugin_register_function_v1	mln_plugin_get_register_function_v1 (void)

Detailed Description

Layer plugin registration.

MapLibre Native's plugin API lets native code register style layer types that the renderer draws itself: a plugin declares paint properties and per-backend shaders, lays out tile features into vertex data on tile workers, and fills uniform blocks on the render thread. This library builds that support into its core and exports the registration entry point, mln_plugin_register_v1(). The contract is upstream's plugin header, which installs next to this library's headers as mln/plugin/plugin_api.h.

This header stays outside maplibre_native_c.h on purpose. Plugin authoring is a separate contract from the map API: upstream versions its structs independently, its callbacks run on tile workers and the render thread for the rest of the process, and plugin authoring uses native code. Language bindings expose the registration function for plugin integrations.

A plugin integration calls its own registration entry point with the function returned by mln_plugin_get_register_function_v1(). The plugin registers its descriptors through that pointer, into this library's copy of MapLibre Native. The integration owns loading the plugin and keeping its code loaded for the process lifetime.

A plugin registers once per process, before any style that uses its layer types loads, into the copy of MapLibre Native that this library carries. The plugin must be built against the same MapLibre Native revision as the library; upstream does not yet promise ABI stability for this API.

The plugin API declares shaders for the OpenGL, Vulkan, and Metal backends. A WebGPU build registers plugins but has no shader path for their layers.

Function Documentation

mln_plugin_get_register_function_v1()

mln_plugin_register_function_v1 mln_plugin_get_register_function_v1

(

void

)

Returns the process-wide mln_plugin_register_v1 entry point; never null.

The accessor exists for consumers that cannot take a C function's address, such as managed-language bindings over this library. Such a consumer obtains the register function here and passes it to the entry point of a plugin shared library, which registers its layer types through the pointer. See the file-top comment for the loading pattern.