PluGeth is a fork of the Go Ethereum Client (Geth) that implements a plugin architecture, allowing developers to extend Geth's capabilities in a number of different ways using plugins, rather than having to create additional, new forks of Geth.
Documentation can be found here.
The upstream Geth client exists primarily to serve as a client for the Ethereum mainnet, though it also supports a number of popular testnets. Supporting the Ethereum mainnet is a big enough challenge in its own right that the Geth team generally avoids changes to support other networks, or to provide features only a small handful of users would be interested in.
The result is that many projects have forked Geth. Some implement their own consensus protocols or alter the behavior of the EVM to support other networks. Others are designed to extract information from the Ethereum mainnet in ways the standard Geth client does not support.
PluGeth aims to provide a single Geth fork that developers can choose to extend rather than forking the Geth project. Out of the box, PluGeth behaves exactly like upstream Geth, but by installing plugins written in Golang, developers can extend its functionality in a wide variety of way.
We are eager to include contributions from the community into the project. We ask that pull requests which include new features to be covered by our test plugin found in: /plugins/test-plugin. The test design and instructions for use are documented there. If further assistance is needed please get in touch with us.
If you're trying to do something that isn't supported by the current plugin system, Reach out to us on Discord and we'll help you figure out how to make it work.
System requirements will vary depending on which network you are connecting to. On the Ethereum mainnet, you should have at least 8 GB RAM, 2 CPUs, and 350 GB of SSD disks.
PluGeth relies on Golang's Plugin implementation, which is only supported on Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. Windows support is unlikely to be added in the foreseeable future.
The Geth codebase is licensed under the LGPL. By linking with Geth, you have an obligation to enable anyone you provide your plugin binaries to run against their own modified versions of Geth. Because of how Golang plugins work running against updated versions of Geth may require recompiling the plugin.
If you plan to license your plugin under the LGPL or a more permissive license, you should be able to meet these requirements. If you plan to use your plugin privately without distributing it, you should be fine. If you plan to release your plugin without making the source available, you may find yourself in violation of Geth's license unless you can provide a way to relink it against more recent versions of Geth.