reserve additive API slots and load optional Python modules

docs/plugin-api-additions/compatibility.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Optional plugin API additions (discussion #144)
+
+Existing hooks, callbacks, return values, context lookup, strings and menu behaviour
+remain unchanged. The C plugin function table gains four fixed append-only slots;
+unused slots are NULL. Older binaries use the unchanged prefix. A plugin must check
+the documented get_info() feature key before accessing a new slot on an older host.
+New Python modules are installed by Meson and the existing Windows copy/installer
+pipeline. Only modules present in the installation are exported; imports of
+zoitechat, hexchat and xchat retain their compatibility aliases.
+
+All APIs run on the client main thread unless explicitly documented otherwise.
+New reserved flags must be zero. These changes do not make old API calls thread-safe.
+
+Nested hook dispatch defers deleted-hook reclamation until its outermost return,
+so new observers can safely emit events and unhook themselves or other hooks.
+
+The optional asyncio module requires Python 3.7 or newer; older supported
+interpreters skip that module and retain the existing scripting API.
+
+Python reload drops the script/API modules while retaining the embedding module
+so callback and lib.ph pointer types keep the same CFFI identity.
+
+Server-hook insertion matches both raw and attrs hooks so documented priorities
+are honoured for mixed registrations, including new filtered attrs callbacks.