Plugins

Nu can be extended using plugins. Plugins behave much like Nu's built-in commands, with the added benefit that they can be added separately from Nu itself.

Nu plugins are executables; Nu launches them as needed and communicates with them over stdin, stdout, and stderr (opens new window). Nu plugins can use either JSON or Cap'n Proto (opens new window) as their communication encoding.

Adding a plugin

To add a plugin, call the register command to tell Nu where to find it. As you do, you'll need to also tell Nushell what encoding the plugin uses.

Linux+macOS:

> register --encoding=capnp ./my_plugins/my-cool-plugin

Windows:

> register --encoding=capnp .\my_plugins\my-cool-plugin.exe

When register is called:

1. Nu launches the plugin and sends it a "Signature" message over stdin
2. The plugin responds via stdout with a message containing its signature (name, description, arguments, flags, and more)
3. Nu saves the plugin signature in the file at $nu.plugin-path, so registration is persisted across multiple launches

Once registered, the plugin is available as part of your set of commands:

> help commands | where is_plugin == true

Examples

Nu's main repo contains example plugins that are useful for learning how the plugin protocol works:

• Rust (opens new window)
• Python (opens new window)

Debugging

The simplest way to debug a plugin is to print to stderr; plugins' standard error streams are redirected through Nu and displayed to the user.

Help

Nu's plugin documentation is a work in progress. If you're unsure about something, the #plugins channel on the Nu Discord (opens new window) is a great place to ask questions!