Self-hosted updates

Before the registry existed, a plugin or theme advertised its own updates: you put an Update URI in the header block, and core polled that URL for a JSON document describing the latest version.

That mechanism still works, and existing packages relying on it keep updating. For anything new, the market is the better route — including for code you host in your own repository, which can be registered with a one-file pointer without moving your source anywhere.

Why the market replaced it

Self-hosted update URLs put one HTTP request per installed package into every update check. A site with fifteen plugins made fifteen outbound calls, each to a different author’s server, each able to be slow, down, or gone. The catalog answers for every package in one cached request, and it verifies a sha256 against the real artifact — the update URL mechanism verifies nothing.

The legacy contract

Declare the endpoint in your header block:

Plugin update URI: https://example.com/updates/myplugin.json

It must return JSON in this shape:

{
  "s_title": "My Plugin",
  "s_description": "What it does. HTML accepted.",
  "s_version": "2.1.0",
  "e_type": "PLUGIN",
  "s_source_file": "https://example.com/downloads/myplugin-2.1.0.zip",
  "s_update_url": "https://example.com/updates/myplugin.json",
  "s_compatible": "6.0.0,6.1.0,6.2.0",
  "s_contact_name": "Your name",
  "s_banner": "banner.jpg",
  "s_banner_path": "https://example.com/banners/",
  "i_total_downloads": "1234",
  "dt_mod_date": "2026-01-15 10:00:00",
  "dt_pub_date": "2025-06-01 09:00:00"
}

Field	Notes
`s_version`	Any alphanumeric string is accepted, but use `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH` — core has to decide whether it is newer than what is installed, and only a sortable version answers that.
`e_type`	One of `PLUGIN`, `THEME` or `LANGUAGE`.
`s_source_file`	Direct link to the zip. Must be reachable without authentication.
`s_update_url`	The endpoint itself, so it can be re-checked after installation.
`s_compatible`	Comma-separated core versions you support.

The Update URI must be unique per package.

Moving to the market

You do not have to give up your own repository or release process. Register an external/<slug>.json pointer in the registry; the catalog builder reads your GitHub releases and publishes entries from the real artifact. See the market.