Plugin Manager

The Plugin Manager discovers, validates, and organizes audio plugins installed on your system. Open it with Cmd+Shift+P or plugins:open-audio-plugins.

Plugin Scanning

The manager scans standard plugin directories for each format:

Scan Directories

Format	macOS Path
AU	/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/, ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
VST3	/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/, ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
CLAP	/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/, ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/

WCLAP plugins are not scanned from disk — they come from the Plinken registry and are always available, no scan needed.

Scan Process

1. Discovery — Walk directories and find plugin bundles
2. Validation — Load each plugin and verify it initializes correctly
3. Metadata extraction — Read name, vendor, version, type, and architecture
4. Status assignment — Mark as Valid, Failed, or ArchMismatch
5. Persistence — Save results to SQLite for instant loading on next launch

Scan Progress

Property	Type	Description
scanning	bool	Whether a scan is in progress
scan_progress	f32	Progress from 0.0 to 1.0

Plugin List

After scanning, the manager displays all discovered plugins with filtering and sorting options.

Filtering

Filter by:

• Format — AU, VST3, CLAP, WCLAP (or all)
• Type — Instrument, Effect, MIDI Effect
• Status — Valid, Failed, Architecture Mismatch
• Search — Filter by name or vendor

Plugin Actions

Action	Description
Enable / Disable	Toggle whether a plugin is available for use in tracks
Rescan	Re-validate a single plugin
Rescan All	Re-scan all plugin directories

Architecture Support

On Apple Silicon Macs, the manager detects plugin architecture:

Architecture	Description
arm64	Native Apple Silicon — fastest
x86_64	Intel — runs via Rosetta 2
universal	Contains both architectures

Plugins with architecture mismatches are flagged as ArchMismatch and disabled by default.

VST3 Shell Plugins

Some VST3 plugins (e.g., Waves WaveShell) are “shell” plugins containing multiple sub-plugins. The manager uses the vst3_class_id (hex-encoded 16-byte CID) to identify and select specific sub-plugins.

Internal Plugins

Plinken includes built-in plugins that appear alongside third-party plugins:

Plugin	Type	Description
Synome	Instrument	Built-in synthesizer (see Synth)
Sampler	Instrument	Sample playback engine with webview GUI

Internal plugins are identified by the is_internal flag and may include a webview_bundle path for their GUI.

Lua API

-- Open the plugin manager
pl.cmd("plugins:open-audio-plugins")

-- The plugin manager state is read-only from Lua
-- Plugins are managed interactively through the UI

Storage

Plugin scan results are persisted in a local SQLite database, separate from project files. This means:

• Scan results survive app restarts
• Plugin state is per-machine (not per-project)
• First launch triggers an automatic full scan
• Subsequent launches load cached results instantly

Related

• Plugins Overview — Plugin format reference
• Instrument Tracks — Using plugins in tracks
• Plinken Runner — Native plugin hosting for the web app