Summary

Wires the new Slipstream plugin system into snarkOS so that node operators can load one or more streaming plugins at startup and manage them at runtime via authenticated REST endpoints. Validator and Client nodes both support plugins; Prover nodes do not (they do not finalize blocks).

Changes

Cargo / feature wiring

• All Slipstream functionality is gated behind --features slipstream-plugins. Nodes compiled without the feature are unaffected. The flag propagates through the workspace: snarkos → snarkos-cli → snarkos-node → snarkos-node-rest → snarkvm.
• Cargo.toml — Added snarkvm-slipstream-plugin-manager as a new workspace dependency
• node/Cargo.toml — Added snarkvm-slipstream-plugin-manager as an optional dep, propagate new slipstream-plugins feature flag to enable it alongside the corresponding snarkvm features.
• node/rest/Cargo.toml — Same optional dep + feature wiring.
• cli/Cargo.toml — Added slipstream-plugins features forwarding to snarkos-node.

CLI

• cli/src/commands/start.rs — Added --slipstream-config PATH flag (repeatable; feature-gated). Empty slice is passed when the feature is disabled so the call site is always uniform.

Node layer

• node/src/node.rs — Threaded slipstream_configs: &[PathBuf] through new_validator and new_client.
• node/src/validator/mod.rs / node/src/client/mod.rs — After Ledger::load, if plugin configs are provided, a SlipstreamPluginManager is initialized and injected into the FinalizeStore

REST API

• node/rest/src/lib.rs — Registered three slipstream routes. Added DELETE to CORS allowed methods.
• node/rest/src/routes.rs — Implemented three handlers:

PUT (reload) is not yet implemented and is left as a TODO.

Error mapping: PluginNotLoaded → 404, PluginAlreadyLoaded → 422, all others → 500.

Tests / docs

• node/tests/common/node.rs — Updated client() and validator() test helpers to pass &[] for the new parameter.
• docs/slipstream_plugins.md — New operator guide covering: what Slipstream is, plugin ABI and build instructions, JSON5 config format, startup flags, full REST API reference, and curl examples. (NOTE: Couldn't think of a better place to put it so happy to move elsewhere)

Usage

Build with plugin support

cargo build --release --features slipstream-plugins

Start a client node with two plugins

snarkos start --client \
--slipstream-config ~/.aleo/plugins/postgres/plugin.json5 \
--slipstream-config ~/.aleo/plugins/metrics/plugin.json5

List loaded plugins

curl http://localhost:3030/mainnet/slipstream/plugins

Load a new plugin at runtime

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"config_file":"/path/to/plugin.json5"}' \
http://localhost:3030/mainnet/slipstream/plugins

Delete/Unload a new plugin at runtime

curl -X DELETE \
http://localhost:3030/mainnet/slipstream/plugins/{plugin_name}

Notes

• All plugin-related code is gated on #[cfg(feature = "slipstream-plugins")], so builds without these features are unaffected.
• Plugin manager lock errors (poisoned RwLock) surface as 500 errors; plugin call errors during finalize are logged as warnings and never propagated to the node.