Declarative UI

Plugins never receive the ImGui context. They send a JSON layout to the Host; the Plugin Manager renders it with the Shire ImGui context and sends interaction notifications back to the plugin.

Layout

ui.setLayout replaces the plugin's layout:

{
  "layout": [
    {"type": "text", "id": "title", "text": "Player Information"},
    {"type": "section", "id": "pos_section", "label": "Position"},
    {"type": "text", "id": "x", "text": "X 123.5"},
    {"type": "toggle", "id": "enabled", "label": "Enabled", "value": true},
    {"type": "slider", "id": "speed", "label": "Speed", "value": 5, "min": 0, "max": 10},
    {"type": "select", "id": "mode", "label": "Mode", "options": ["A", "B"], "value": "A"},
    {"type": "input", "id": "name", "label": "Name", "value": "text"},
    {"type": "progress", "id": "progress", "label": "Progress", "text": "50%", "value": 0.5},
    {"type": "button", "id": "refresh", "label": "Refresh"},
    {"type": "separator", "id": "sep"}
  ]
}

Components

Type	Required fields	Notes
`text`	`id`, `text`	wraps in the manager
`section`	`id`, `label`	separator + heading
`separator`	none (id optional)	thin divider
`button`	`id`, `label`	sends a UI event when clicked
`toggle`	`id`, `label`, `value` (bool)	sends the new boolean
`slider`	`id`, `label`, `value`, `min`, `max`	sends the new number while dragging
`input`	`id`, `label`, `value`	sends on edit completion
`select`	`id`, `label`, `options`, `value`	sends the selected string
`progress`	`id`, `label`, `value` (0..1), optional `text`	display only

Ids are limited to 64 characters from [A-Za-z0-9._-]; duplicate ids are rejected. Layouts are capped at 64 components and 16 KiB of label/text/value data. Text is rendered, never executed.

Events

When the user interacts, the Host sends:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "shire.uiEvent",
  "params": {"component": "enabled", "type": "toggle", "value": true}
}

The SDKs expose on_ui_event (Python), onUiEvent (TypeScript/C#) or poll_event/run (C++/Rust). A handler can call ui.setLayout or ui.update to refresh the screen.

def on_ui(component, kind, value):
    if component == "enabled":
        settings["enabled"] = bool(value)
        plugin.set_ui(build_layout())

plugin.on_ui_event(on_ui)

Updating one component

ui.update avoids resending the whole layout:

{"id": "progress", "value": 0.75}

The Host updates the component in its copy. The manager reads the updated snapshot on the next frame.

Where it appears

Open the manager with F9 or Config → Plugins → Open Plugin Manager. Select a plugin; its layout appears under Plugin UI. The manager window uses the same ImGui context, fonts and theme as the rest of Shire. It is a normal ImGui window, so it is included in the input-capture rects like the main menu.

Limits and behavior

A plugin can have one layout at a time.
A layout update is validated and copied; a malformed component rejects the whole update with -32602.
A plugin that is stopped has its layout removed from the manager when the record is removed; disabled plugins keep their saved layout in memory.
The manager is the only renderer. A plugin cannot draw arbitrary ImGui, create windows, capture global input or access textures.
If a plugin needs a control that is not listed, it can combine existing components or request a new native operation through the Host roadmap.