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Pieces

brain/knowledge/pieces-engine/pieces.md

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Pieces

The metadata catalog of automation integrations ("pieces") — each a named integration like @activepieces/piece-gmail providing actions and triggers. Stored in piece_metadata and served from an in-memory pieceCache rebuilt from the DB on startup and refreshed via pub/sub.

Entities & services

  • piece_metadata (PieceMetadataEntity) — unique on (name, version, platformId); platformId null = official, set = custom piece for that platform. actions/triggers are JSON maps (each may carry an optional outputSchema).
  • pieceMetadataService — list / getOrThrow / listVersions / create / delete / registry; owns cache interactions.
  • pieceInstallService.installPiece — saves archive, dispatches an EXECUTE_METADATA engine job to extract metadata, then stores it.
  • pieceSyncService.sync — upserts official pieces from the bundled registry file.
  • Routes under /v1/pieces: list, :name get, :name/versions, POST /options (dynamic dropdown eval on a worker), POST / (platformAdmin — install custom piece), POST /sync, DELETE /:id.

Types

  • PieceType — OFFICIAL (bundled) or CUSTOM (platform-installed).
  • PackageType — REGISTRY (NPM) or ARCHIVE (uploaded tarball; archiveId FKs to file).
  • OutputSchema — optional per-action/trigger structured render hint (fields, itemLabel); set by the piece author, consumed by the builder's Smart Output Viewer and data selector. Opt-in and non-breaking.

Gotchas

  • Available all editions; base listing + install is Community-level.
  • EE/Cloud per-piece and per-action/trigger visibility flows through resolveVisibility (ee/pieces/filters/piece-filtering-utils.ts), which returns a VisibilityPolicy or null on CE / when platformId/projectId is nil (callers treat null as no filtering). The policy is derived from the project's piece set (via project.pieceSetId, falling back to the platform Default).
  • Install and sync also enqueue a tool-search reindex, but only when isToolSearchEnabled(); no-op otherwise.
  • delete removes all versions sharing the name on that platform, and only for CUSTOM pieces the caller owns.
  • A piece silently vanishes from the list when its minimumSupportedRelease is ahead of the root package.json version. fetchLatestPieces filters every piece through isSupportedRelease(apVersionUtil.getCurrentRelease(), piece). Pieces are routinely merged targeting the next release, so on main a couple dozen are invisible locally until the version bump lands. No warning is logged — it just isn't there.
  • DynamicProperties clears its value before it knows the new schema, so the merge source must be a snapshot. DynamicPropertiesImplementation re-fetches the child schema on every refresher change, clearing the form value synchronously and re-populating it in the mutation callback. The merge source for getDefaultValueForProperties has to be a lastKnownValue ref captured before the clear — reading form.getValues() in the callback sees the cleared null and defaults every child (GIT-1514). The snapshot must be spread-cloned: RHF getValues(name) hands back the live object and the clear's setValue(...child, null) mutates it in place. Guard the ref with isNil so it survives rapid successive changes, where later effect runs already observe null.
  • DynamicPropertiesContext tracks loading by property name only, so two in-flight requests for the same property let the first completion clear the flag for both — briefly re-enabling Test Step while the value is still cleared.
  • The frontend POST /v1/pieces/options client only rejects for DYNAMIC. piecesApi.options (packages/web/src/features/pieces/api/) catches DROPDOWN failures, toasts, and resolves with a disabled-dropdown fallback — so for dropdowns every error path wired onto that mutation is dead: usePieceOptions' onError handlers, its retry: 1, and the if (error) throw error into DynamicPropertiesErrorBoundary. DYNAMIC must rethrow: a swallowed failure arrives as a successful empty schema, which resets the property's children to defaults and gets persisted by step-settings autosave.
  • AP_DEV_PIECES shadows the DB registry copy by name, so a dev piece failing the release gate removes the piece entirely rather than falling back to the published version. Dropping the name from AP_DEV_PIECES (or bumping the local root package.json) brings it back.

Key files

Entry point: pieceModule, the Fastify plugin registered in packages/server/api/src/app/app.ts that mounts every /v1/pieces route.

  • packages/server/api/src/app/pieces/metadata/ — controller, service, TypeORM entity, and the pub/sub-invalidated piece-cache.ts
  • packages/server/api/src/app/pieces/ — community-piece-module.ts (POST /v1/pieces install), piece-install-service.ts, piece-sync-service.ts
  • packages/server/api/src/app/ee/pieces/filters/piece-filtering-utils.ts — resolveVisibility and the EE/Cloud VisibilityPolicy
  • packages/web/src/features/pieces/api/ — frontend HTTP client
  • packages/web/src/features/pieces/hooks/ — React Query hooks for listing, piece model, options, and output schema
  • packages/web/src/features/pieces/components/ — PieceIcon, PieceIconList, PieceSelectorSearch, InstallPieceDialog
  • packages/pieces/framework/src/lib/output-schema.ts — OutputSchema / OutputSchemaField / FieldFormat types

Paths verified 2026-07-17.