Research: Kodi repository artifact format and kodi-addon-checker usage #13

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1. JMAN730

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   on Jul 6, 2026
2. JMAN730

   added a parent issue on Jul 6, 2026

   • Wayfinder map: CI/release pipeline for The Red Wizard repo #12
3. JMAN730

   marked this as blocking 2 issues on Jul 6, 2026

   • Prototype: build script — zip addons, generate addons.xml entries and md5s per channel #15
   • Prototype: CI validation workflow with blocking and advisory tiers #16
4. JMAN730

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   on Jul 6, 2026
5. JMAN730 commented on Jul 6, 2026

   

   JMAN730

   on Jul 6, 2026

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   Resolved. Full findings: docs/research/kodi-repo-artifact-format.md (verified against Kodi master source, kodi.wiki, and xbmc/addon-check v0.0.36).

   Key answers:

   • addons.xml = root <addons> wrapping each addon's addon.xml copied verbatim; parsed by CAddonMgr::AddonsFromRepoXML. May be served gzipped.
   • addons.xml.md5 is a change marker, not verified by default; Kodi reads only the first token, so a bare lowercase hex hash is safest. Give every <dir> a checksum or repo-wide caching is disabled.
   • Per-zip hashes: only via <hashes> in the repository addon's <dir> (sidecar <zip>.md5/.sha256 files); there is no hash element in addons.xml. Omit <hashes> → no per-zip files needed.
   • Zip: URL is constructed as datadir/<id>/<id>-<version>.zip, byte-exact/case-sensitive; zip must contain exactly one root folder with a parseable addon.xml — any stray root entry breaks install.
   • Pre-install art resolves only from <assets> paths relative to datadir/<id>/ (no icon.png filename fallback in modern Kodi) — every shipped addon.xml needs an <assets> block, and icon.png/fanart.jpg must be copied into the datadir per addon.
   • Channels: nothing special beyond one <dir> per channel; minversion/maxversion are inclusive and compared to the xbmc.addon API version. The flat dir-less form is an error since v20.
   • kodi-addon-checker: pip install kodi-addon-checker; --branch required (…nexus omega piers); pointing it at a folder with no top-level addon.xml checks every subfolder (repo mode); exit 1 on PROBLEMs, 0 on warnings; console/log reporters only (no JSON); needs network. No [COLOR]-in-name check — the noise is artwork sizes, blacklisted strings/filetypes, and folder/id mismatch (--allow-folder-id-mismatch exists).
   • Prior art: no maintained, licensed, reusable Action for datadir repo generation exists; ecosystem norm (jurialmunkey, CastagnaIT, drinfernoo) is a small stdlib-only in-repo generator script — confirms rolling our own shared by local + CI, and installing the checker via pip rather than the stale official Action.
6. JMAN730 commented on Jul 6, 2026

   

   JMAN730

   on Jul 6, 2026

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   Closing — research complete, findings linked above.
7. JMAN730

   closed this as completedon Jul 6, 2026