fix: plugins template (IBM#783)

* feat: update context forge target in template's project dependencies

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* fix: exclude jinja files from reformatting tabs

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* fix: plugins cli defaults

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* fix: revert formatted Makefile template

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* feat: add optional packages

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* docs: update plugin template docs

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

* docs: update template readme

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

---------

Signed-off-by: Frederico Araujo <[email protected]>

Author: araujof

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -482,8 +482,8 @@ repos:
       - id: remove-tabs
         name: 🚀 Remove Tabs
         description: Replaces tabs by whitespaces.
-        # exclude root-level Makefiles and any path ending in /Makefile or .mk
-        exclude: '(^|/)Makefile$|\.mk$'
+        # exclude root-level Makefiles and any path ending in /Makefile or .mk or .jinja
+        exclude: '(^|/)Makefile$|(\.mk|\.jinja)$'
 
   # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   # 🚫 Branch Protection Hooks

docs/docs/using/plugins/lifecycle.md

@@ -71,7 +71,17 @@ Inspect those two files and get familiar with them. There are many options you c
 
 ### Dependencies
 
-Plugins are Python packages with dependencies managed by `uv`. Just like the gateway, you can add, lock, lint, and ensure that best practices are followed when creating your plugins. To ensure compatibility with the gateway linters, we do not directly install them in the template. Instead, please install the gateway package with the dev extras, which will include all required linters.
+Plugins are Python packages with dependencies managed by `uv`. Just like the gateway, you can add, lock, lint, and ensure that best practices are followed when creating your plugins. To install dependencies with dev packages (required for linting and testing), run:
+
+```bash
+make install-dev
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can also install it in editable mode:
+
+```bash
+make install-editable
+```
 
 ### Test
 

mcpgateway/plugins/tools/cli.py

@@ -45,9 +45,7 @@
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Configuration defaults
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_BASE_URL = "https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge.git"
-DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_TYPE = "external"
-DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_URL = f"{DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_BASE_URL}::plugin_templates/{DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_TYPE}"
+DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_URL = "https://github.com/IBM/mcp-context-forge.git"
 DEFAULT_AUTHOR_NAME = "<changeme>"
 DEFAULT_AUTHOR_EMAIL = "<changeme>"
 DEFAULT_PROJECT_DIR = Path("./.")