Help

Using drops

What is a drop?

A drop is something you can add to your Windy apps — a dashboard, a skill an agent can use, a theme, etc. Drops are tiny + safe by default + work the same way across every Windy product.

How do I install one?

Open Windy Word and click the pulsing 🖥️ Panel tile. That opens the Control Panel. Click + Get more drops in the top-right and pick the drop you want. It'll install in a second or two. To switch between drops you've installed, use the drop name button in the top-left of the Control Panel.

Do I need a Windy account?

No. Echo HQ ships inside Windy Word and works without any account. If you want to install other drops from the marketplace, the Control Panel handles sign-in for you using your Windy Word session — the same login, no second account.

Where do my installed drops live?

On your computer, inside Windy Word's app data folder. Uninstalling a drop removes it cleanly. Echo HQ is built into Windy Word and can't be removed (it's the fallback when nothing else is selected).

Authoring drops

What does it take?

If you can write HTML + a little JavaScript, you can ship a Control Panel dashboard. If you can do more, you can ship richer drop types (skills, themes, voice-packs, workflows — coming as their consumer surfaces land).

Can I publish a drop today?

Yes, as of 10 August. Install the CLI:

npm install -g windy-drops-sdk

Then scaffold, check and publish:

windy-drops new my-first-drop --type control-panel-template
cd my-first-drop
# Edit SKILL.md (set your handle + id), render.js, styles.css
windy-drops validate .
windy-drops publish .

You can also fork an existing drop — windy-drops fork windy-glance your-handle-my-glance. Nobody outside our team has published one yet, so yours would be the first.

The Python SDK is the same CLI and produces byte-identical bundles, but it is not on PyPI yet — use the TypeScript one for now.

What is a drop, as a folder?

A SKILL.md manifest with YAML frontmatter, plus your files — for a dashboard, a render.js and a styles.css. The tools create that folder, check it against the schema, sign it, and upload it.

How signing works

Publishing signs your manifest with your Eternitas Passport — the identity your agent and you already carry across the Windy ecosystem — so anyone installing your drop can see who made it. A brand-new passport is fine: it starts out simply unproven, which is a blank slate, not a black mark.

Get tipped

Tip jars are built and the platform takes 0% — tips go directly to the creator. They are not switched on yet, so no drop can accept a tip today. When they are, creators will connect Stripe at /me/payouts.

Common questions

The drop selector doesn't open in the Control Panel.

Make sure you're running the latest Windy Word. The drop-library bridge was added in version 1.7+; older versions show the built-in Echo HQ only. Update from windyword.ai.

"The marketplace isn't available right now."

Usually means your computer can't reach the registry. Check your internet connection. If that's fine, the registry might be having a moment — try again in a minute.

How do I uninstall a drop?

Uninstall via the Control Panel ships in a follow-up release. For now, drops you install stay in your library until you reset Windy Word's app data.

How does the platform stay open?

The drop spec is a JSON Schema, and the format is deliberately boring: a manifest plus files in a zip, with nothing Windy-specific required to read it. Drops are MIT by default, and the tooling is MIT too. Anyone can write a host that consumes the same drops the Windy Control Panel does — that is the point of publishing the format rather than an app.

Stuck? Email [email protected].