Runtime and Discovery

WbW-QGIS discovers tool availability at runtime using the active whitebox_workflows environment.

Discovery Flow

At a high level:

1. Import whitebox_workflows in the QGIS Python environment.
2. Create a runtime session.
3. Read runtime capability metadata.
4. Read tool catalog metadata.
5. Partition available vs locked tools.
6. Refresh Processing provider algorithms.

When to Refresh

Refresh discovery when:

• plugin settings change,
• runtime tier/entitlement changes,
• whitebox_workflows is rebuilt or reinstalled,
• tool taxonomy updates are introduced.

Common Discovery Symptoms

• Provider missing entirely: plugin import/runtime bootstrap failure.
• Provider appears but tools are absent: catalog read failure or stale cache.
• Tools show as locked unexpectedly: runtime capability/tier mismatch.

In all cases, validate environment alignment first.