Does Discourse have custom plugin templates, and how do I write custom plugins?

[NateDhaliwal]

Yes, as linked above:

Developing Discourse using a Dev Container

Dev Containers is an open standard for configuring a development environment inside a container. This almost entirely eliminates the need to install/configure Discourse-specific tools/dependencies on your local machine, and makes it very easy to keep up-to-date as Discourse evolves over time. Dev Containers can be used in a number of different IDEs, or directly using their reference CLI. This guide will describe the setup process for VSCode. Getting started Download and install VSCode Ins…

You can also run a dev env in Guthub Codespaces:

Developing Discourse on GitHub Codespaces

GitHub Codespaces is a very fast way to get started with Discourse development. Their free tier is good for 30 hours per month of a 4-core machine. Getting Started Navigate to the github repository Press the , (comma) key on your keyboard, to open GitHub codespaces Use ‘change options’ to customize the machine. Technically, the 2-core machine will work, but we recommend using at least 4-core for a better experience. [Codespace config] Click “Create Codespace” Wait for the contai…