Backends, data, and users

Most plugins need no backend. A map that draws its own data files, fetches a public API, or reads data/ inside its bundle is complete without one. Reach for this page only when your plugin needs a service or stored data.

What exists today

backend/ holds exactly two things:

Folder	What it is
`backend/pocketbase/`	the database: migrations, and the local instance `bun run dev` starts
`backend/rudder-engine/`	the local speech engine for the Rudder voice plugin

A plugin that needs one names it in its <profile>.meta.json "backend" key, as plugin-designs/rudder-voice/rudder-voice.meta.json does with "backend": "backend/rudder-engine".

A plugin that needs a local backend almost certainly also needs "targets" without web, which keeps it out of the Research Gallery — see targets.md. Rudder declares both.

The database rule: schema is a commit, never a click

You never publish a database. What travels between people is the shape — tables and fields — as migration files committed to backend/pocketbase/pb_migrations/. Adding a field is a normal change: edit, commit the migration, push it like any other file.

This is deliberate. A rule that opens data to the public arrives as a commit someone can read rather than as a setting somebody clicked. documentation/HOWTO-join-the-table.md is the full explanation.

New collections start locked. Your plugin's data is not readable until a migration opens it, so nothing is public by accident.

Which database your laptop talks to

By default, your own. bun run dev starts a local instance, keeps its data in .pb/, and gives you an admin screen at /api/pb/_/. A fresh clone plus bun run dev is the whole setup.

Pointing at the team's shared test data is opt-in, one line in .env.local:

DX_PB_URL=https://<your team's dev server>/pb

DX_PB_PORT is the only other one, and only if the log says port 8090 is in use. The full set of environment names is in .env.example: VITE_MAPBOX_TOKEN, VITE_API_BASE_URL, DX_SYNC_REMOTE, DX_SYNC_BRANCH, DX_SYNC_INTERVAL, DX_PB_URL, DX_PB_PORT. Every line is optional; empty means the all-local default.

User tiers — DESIGN INTENT, NOT BUILT

Read this heading literally. What follows is a planned model recorded in the project's architecture notes under the heading "Open load-bearing assumptions (DX base; unproven)". None of it is implemented in this repo. Do not design your plugin around it, do not write code that assumes a tier exists, and do not tell anyone a plugin "supports" these. It is here so you recognise the vocabulary when it comes up, and so you do not invent a competing scheme.

The intended tiers, which parallel the five plugin capabilities:

Tier	Intended meaning
anonymous	reaches the plugin by URL, no sign-in
access-code	temporary access without an account
plugin user	authenticated against the database
base OIDC member	signed in through the platform's identity provider
plugin admin	administers one plugin
PB plugin owner	owns a plugin's data
PB plugin writer	writes a plugin's data, with no access to other plugins' data

Quantum Forms is named as the reference plugin that would exercise every tier.

Source. This is recorded in ARCHITECTURE-EQUATION.md §6, which lives in the project's QA cycle outside this code repository (internal-tracker/03-deployment-cycle/). It is quoted here rather than linked because a reader who clones this repo will not have that file. If you need the authoritative text, ask whoever maintains the QA cycle — do not reconstruct it from this summary.

What to do in the meantime

If your plugin needs any notion of "who is this" today, use what is actually built: PocketBase auth plus a migration that opens exactly the collection you need, and nothing wider. Do not hand-roll a permission model to bridge the gap — the last tier above ("no access to other plugins' data") is the property a hand-rolled scheme tends to break, and breaking it crosses plugins.

targets.md — the targets and backend meta keys
workflow.md — landing a migration on main like any other file
documentation/HOWTO-join-the-table.md — the three databases, in full

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