The marketplace is the Library category of asterobot.net, at https://asterobot.net/files/category/10-library/, where asterobot.net members share packages. You browse it on the website, and Asterobot never browses it for you: once you've found a package, you give its link to Asteroboard and Asterobot downloads it.
Browse the Library category
Open https://asterobot.net/files/category/10-library/ in your browser. The download forms in Asteroboard also have a Browse packages on asterobot.net link that opens it.
Each package is a file with a page of its own, where its author presents it and publishes its versions. The page's address follows this pattern:
https://asterobot.net/files/file/6-testscript5/The number at the start of the last part, 6 here, is the file's ID. Asteroboard accepts either the whole address or the ID alone.
Read a file's page before you install it: who published it and what it says the package does. A package runs with your bot's game session, and Trusting a package explains what that allows.
Official and Community
Asterobot sorts marketplace files into two kinds, and shows the difference as a badge in Library Manager:
| Official | Community | |
|---|---|---|
| Which files | Files the Asterobot team marks as official on asterobot.net | Every other file, published by an asterobot.net member |
| Name in your library | @asterobot: followed by the file's title, such as @asterobot:auto-harvest |
@, the author's name, : and the file's title, such as @some-author:auto-harvest |
Asterobot reads the official mark on the file itself, whatever category the file is in. The author's name and the title are both written in lowercase, with hyphens.
A package keeps the name it got the first time you installed it, even if the author renames the file later. What is a package explains the badges in your library, and authors will find the naming rules in How your package is named.
The Official badge tells you who published a package. It isn't a promise about what the code does, and neither badge replaces reading the file's page.
From the website to your library
Asterobot must be signed in to asterobot.net, since it downloads files with that account. Then:
- Copy the address of the file's page, or note its ID.
- In Asteroboard, open Library Manager and click Download package, or click Download one wherever you choose a package for a bot.
- Paste the address or the ID in File ID or URL, then click Preview. Asteroboard shows what the file will install as. A preview doesn't count as a download on asterobot.net.
- Click Install. Asterobot downloads the package and every package it depends on that isn't in your library yet.
Install from the marketplace goes through each step, the preview card and every error.
You can also download a package's file from its page yourself and add it with Import a .zip. A package added that way has no link to its marketplace file: no updates, no Source row, and no check that its files stay as they were downloaded. Install through Download package whenever you can. See Manage your library.
Who can see and download a file
asterobot.net decides who can see a file and who can download it. Asterobot asks with the account it's signed in with, the one on its Account page, which isn't necessarily the account your browser uses on the website. Two messages come from those rules:
| Message | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
File not found, or you don't have permission to view it. |
Under File ID or URL, after Preview | The file doesn't exist, the account Asterobot uses can't see it, or Asterobot couldn't ask asterobot.net, for example because it isn't signed in. |
You don't have permission to download this file. |
Under the preview card | The account can see the file but isn't allowed to download it. Install stays greyed out. |
For the first one, check the address, then the account button at the bottom of Asteroboard's sidebar: it should show your name. For the second, there's nothing to fix in Asterobot: the file's rules on asterobot.net don't allow your account to download it.
Updates
An author publishes a new version of a package on the same file page. Nothing changes in your library when that happens: Asterobot doesn't look for new versions by itself.
To get them, click Check for updates in Library Manager. Asterobot compares each package installed from the marketplace with the version on its file page, and installs a new version next to the one you have when you ask for it, so your bots keep playing the old one until you move them. Update packages walks through it.
Publish your own package
Any asterobot.net member can publish a package in the Library category. The author's side, from preparing the package to publishing new versions, is in the developer docs: start with Before you publish, then Publish on asterobot.net.