Hi @ferdinand ,
Thanks for the clarifications. I had originally asked maxon support and referenced the original post as a source and they recommended I just post on the forum my questions. I'll take a look at the guidelines for future postings.
The frame padding I was referring to are in regards to the frame numbering that is written out when selecting a render pattern in the output settings that you would find under Render Settings > Save > Name where the one we typically use is Name.0000.TIF.
Based on how you answered my questions it sounds like as long as I load the plugin script that contains the registration code that I could create custom tokens that way. I can also therefore create my own $frame token with my own frame padding (python str.zfill method) for frame numbers however there is no way to override the 4 digit frame padding that comes from the render settings name field. Best case where we use that custom token is we'd have duplicate frame numbers in the final output filename where our custom $frame token will have our custom frame padding numbers and the frame counter that's only 4 digit padding since there doesn't appear to be any setting under Render Settings > Save > Name that doesn't include the frame counter.
Based on your example you gave I would end up with (my_render_frame-000001_001.tif, my_render_frame-000002_002.tif, etc.) if I used the Name000.TIF template and had my own custom $frame token I used in the output filepath.
I've got a script that can address the frame padding for when our shots cross the 10000 frame mark after the renders complete which I suppose I can look into the postprocessor hook you mentioned but was hoping there might've been some way to avoid having to do any post processing.
Thanks again for all the information.