Summary

WasmEdge plugins are a set of extensions that empower the wasm ecosystem, including the following proposals and specific experimental features:

• wasi_crypto
• wasi_http
• wasi_nn
• wasi_poll
• wasm_bpf
• wasmedge_ffmpeg
• wasmedge_image
• wasmedge_llmc
• wasmedge_ocr
• wasmedge_opencvmini
• wasmedge_process
• wasmedge_stablediffusion
• wasmedge_tensorflow
• wasmedge_tensorflowlite
• wasmedge_zlib

However, the number of plugins is growing quickly, and updates for each plugin are becoming more frequent. Keeping the plugins in the WasmEdge core repository will lead to the following drawbacks:

1. It will complicate the CI matrix.
2. It will create a strong connection between the WasmEdge core version, especially requiring the plugin maintainers to update the plugins along with the unreleased WasmEdge master codebase.
3. It will require maintainers to have standalone LTS branches for applying the latest plugin changes and manually renewing the release assets for some LLM/AI plugins.

To reduce this issue, as we have already done for the Rust-based plugins, I am proposing a significant change: to decouple these plugins into a new repository called WasmEdge/plugins or WasmEdge/cxx-plugins. This way, we can allow plugin maintainers to focus on the plugins themselves and delegate to a stable WasmEdge version such as 0.14.1. The only time that the plugin maintainers need to sync up with the latest API changes is when WasmEdge is going to have a new release.

Details

• Create a new repository for the plugins.
• Move the following plugins into the new repository:
  • wasi_crypto
  • wasi_http
  • wasi_nn
  • wasi_poll
  • wasm_bpf
  • wasmedge_ffmpeg
  • wasmedge_image
  • wasmedge_llmc
  • wasmedge_ocr
  • wasmedge_opencvmini
  • wasmedge_process
  • wasmedge_stablediffusion
  • wasmedge_tensorflow
  • wasmedge_tensorflowlite
  • wasmedge_zlib
• Modify the installer to retrieve the assets from the new repository.

Appendix

No response