Featured Community Plugin: What to Wear

This post is part of a series, featuring the incredible work of plugin authors who grow the TRMNL plugin ecosystem with every contribution. The TRMNL team has individually selected these plugins and authors to be featured.

What to Wear Plugin

Weather plugins are, by far, the most customized, remixed, and adapted content in the TRMNL plugin ecosystem. It was a bit of fresh air to see a new plugin that not only focused on why you want to know the weather, but also included original, hand-made pixel art to visually tell the weather story. That's why Mario, a TRMNL team member, selected the What to Wear plugin by Niko as a featured plugin. Here's what Niko had to say, in their own words.

Why did you want this plugin to exist?

I wanted this plugin to exist because weather apps are great at showing data, and there are some beautiful ones already out there for TRMNL, but they still leave the decision-making to you. I kept finding that checking the forecast did not answer the question I actually cared about: what should I wear when I step out the door. I would look at temperature, wind, and precipitation and still have to do the mental math to decide on layers. With winter coming up again in Munich, I got caught a few times without the right clothes and thought the TRMNL at my front door was the perfect place to solve this.

Why were you the person to make it?

Honestly, I’m not really sure I was the obvious person to make it. My background is in UX and I have little to no coding experience. But that was also an advantage: I started with the problem, not the implementation. Instead of building yet another way to display weather data, I reframed the question to "what decision is the user trying to make?" and designed the plugin around that moment. That reframing is what made the solution feel different.

Were you inspired by any other recipes or plugin creators?

... seeing all the other cool stuff others are making was definitely inspiring to me. The community on Discord is what really got me over the finish line: I shared screenshots of early builds, got a lot of encouragement, and picked up great ideas and feedback that directly improved the final published version.

What was your process for creating the plugin?

This was my first time building something like this from scratch, so my process was very learning-driven. I started with the concept and visuals, creating the character states and layer variations first in Pixelmator on my iPad. Then I worked backwards into the logic: figuring out how to access weather data, structure it, define a small set of categories or states, and map those states to the right pixel drawings. To get there, I relied heavily on discussions with ChatGPT and Google Gemini to learn setup, troubleshoot, and iterate on the data model and rules until the output felt consistent.

Halfway through, after I already had a first functional version running on my own TRMNL, I realized that “what to wear now” is only half the problem. Knowing the current conditions does not necessarily set you up for the rest of the day. So I added the extra guidance layer: a short sentence that hints what else to bring or how to structure your layers so you can adapt easily if the weather changes later.

Did you learn anything that you want to apply to future or past recipes?

Well, learning by doing taught me a bunch of ways how not to approach it, and how not to end up with a working result. On a more serious note: it taught me not to get overwhelmed by the unknown parts and to keep trying anyway. I already have more ideas brewing, and a couple half-finished, but life is currently getting in the way of sitting down and polishing them for release. Hopefully soon.

Is there a tip you would give to a new plugin developer?

1. Use the TRMNL community as part of your workflow! Share early, even if it is rough. Post a screenshot, describe what you are trying to achieve, and ask questions. The people in the Discord are genuinely amazing: encouraging, curious, and generous with their time. You will get practical fixes, ideas you would not have thought of, and a lot of momentum to keep going. For me, that encouragement was the difference between a half-finished experiment and something that actually got polished and published. Also, it makes building feel social, not lonely, which is a big deal when you are learning.

What is your favorite plugin that someone else created and why?

My favorite plugins are the Calvin and Hobbes and the xkcd recipes. They are a perfect match for TRMNL: you walk by, take a quick glance, and you get a little hit of cleverness without having to pull out your phone. Calvin and Hobbes is pure nostalgia and warmth, and xkcd reliably delivers that dry, nerdy humor that always lands for me.