Short, complete, copy-pasteable recipes. Each file is a working plugin snippet — drop it into a plugin file that starts with:

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: My Desktop Extension
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

• Add a dock item with a badge

• Give a tile two icons, one per state

• Decorate the dock without forking the renderer

• Replace the dock rail entirely

• Gate OpenStation by role

• React to window events

• Pin your app to the phone tab bar, and react to the mode

• WP Explorer — add a preview-pane action button

• WP Explorer — custom post types and their folder

• WP Explorer — add a column to the list view

• Accept drops on your desktop icon

• Add an action that works on a whole selection

• Window lifecycle hooks (one subscriber per state)

• Open a child window its owner can't cover

• Ship a workspace template

• Style a specific admin page inside the iframe

• Window themes — per-window CSS variables

• Register a desktop theme — whole-OS reskin from a plugin

• Window controls — reorder / hide / replace close-min-max

• Window slots — replace icon, title, banners above/below the title bar

• Custom window chrome — full title-bar replacement (Experimental)

• Register a custom unfocused-window effect (Experimental)

• Register a custom window reveal (Experimental)

• Window links — relate windows and restyle the ties (Experimental)

• Related entities — extend the title bar's "Related" menu (Experimental)

• Revisions in their own window — extend or redirect "View revisions" (Experimental)

• Add a row to a window's ⋯ menu (Experimental)

• React to a window being set free onto the real desktop (Experimental)

• Inject data into openStationConfig

• Code Blue — register your plugin's log file

• Register a wallpaper (CSS + canvas)

• Register a game — launcher tile, scoreboard, challenges (Experimental)

• Restyle and drive Mio (Experimental)

• Register a window companion (Experimental)

• Register a widget — polling, storage, canvas charts

• Add an opt-in card to Station Home

• Register a desktop icon (Jorvy)

• Register a slash-command for the AI palette

• Programmatic AI Copilot — wp.os.ai.ask()

• Tune the AI model config (model, tokens, reasoning)

• AI Agents — extend and invoke from a plugin

• Retune the Drafts widget's AI writing assistant (Experimental)

• Connect to a window — title-bar button + iframe pub/sub

• Iframe-initiated window opens — open/talk to a sibling window from inside a chromeless iframe

• Native window with tabs (auto-swap pattern)

• Use <os-*> components from a plugin that ships as a zip

• App layouts: dashboard grids, scrolling settings, list/detail and editor/preview — Stable

• Layout primitives (body → panel → row → col)

• <os-flyout> — sliding edge-anchored panel

• Render a data table — filters, sticky columns, sub-tables

• Ship a window as an .os.php app — state, actions, chrome, no JavaScript (Experimental)

• Loading spinner — presets and color overrides

• Progress bar — determinate, indeterminate, tones

• Window loading state — spinner overlay + ready signal

• Native windows — overview + render-callback contract

• Native window with bundle-bound config (REST URLs, nonces)

• The render ctx — signal, onResize, onHide, onShow, markLoading/markReady

• Cross-window devtools — instrumentation primitives

• Extend the Trash

• Content changes — live-refresh every window listing your type

• Customize note → post conversion — openstation_notes_convert_post_args

• Programmatic folder sharing — invite from PHP, listen for share events

• Real file storage — react to uploads, gate policy, share files from PHP

• Native Posts window — default-on, remap registry, hooks

• Native Plugins window — Browse / Install / Reviews / Drag-to-dock

• Window activity & the status ring — wp.os.fetch, Window.trackActivity

• Pulse a window's icon — Window.requestAttention()

• Render a keyed list without losing clicks — renderKeyedList()

• Build a feed reader without the bookkeeping — wp.os.createInfiniteList()

• Connect to an external service via OAuth — openstation_register_oauth_relay()

• Share state across multi-bundle plugins — wp.os.createSharedStore()

• Place something where the user can reach it — wp.os.workArea

• Track who's around — wp.os.presence

• Surface a custom "Install as App" button

• Send a notification — wp.os.notify()

• Show a banner at the top of a window — openstation_register_window_notice()

• Catch files dragged in from the host OS — os.drop.*

• Observe safely aborted stored-file cleanup

If your use case isn't here, check Hooks Reference and JavaScript Reference — everything we fire is documented there.

• Repairable form edits with MIO — Experimental: structured validation, revisioned operations, status reconciliation, large-document history and receipt-bound Preview buttons.

• Edit a mixed-field record — collect, populate and reset scalar, boolean and tag fields through one form API.