feat: introduce (experimental) plugin system

narwhals/translate.py

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import datetime as dt
+import sys
 from decimal import Decimal
 from functools import wraps
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Callable, Literal, TypeVar, overload
@@ -532,6 +533,27 @@ def _from_native_impl(  # noqa: C901, PLR0911, PLR0912, PLR0915
             raise TypeError(msg)
         return Version.V1.dataframe(InterchangeFrame(native_object), level="interchange")
 
+    from importlib.metadata import entry_points
+
+    discovered_plugins = entry_points(group="narwhals.plugins")
+
+    if sys.version_info >= (3, 10):
+        for plugin in discovered_plugins:
+            obj = plugin.load()  # pragma: no cover
+
+            try:
+                df_compliant = obj.from_native(  # pragma: no cover
+                    native_object, eager_only=False, series_only=False
+                )
+            except Exception as e:
+                if "daft" in str(type(native_object)):  # pragma: no cover
+                    msg = "Hint: you might be missing the `narwhals-daft` plugin"
+                    raise Exception(msg) from e  # noqa: TRY002
+                # continue looping over the plugins
+                continue  # pragma: no cover
+            else:
+                return df_compliant.to_narwhals()  # pragma: no cover
+
     if not pass_through:
         msg = f"Expected pandas-like dataframe, Polars dataframe, or Polars lazyframe, got: {type(native_object)}"
         raise TypeError(msg)