mikkeli
3acab7bf7e
The checker covered the identity strings a host sees, but not two other kinds of template residue. Descriptions: `Cargo.toml`'s `description` and `CLAP_DESCRIPTION` both shipped as placeholders, and the latter surfaces in some host browsers. Type names: `MyPlugin` and `PluginParams` appear at nine sites between the struct definitions, the three trait impls, the two export macros and the params field. Missing one is a compile error rather than silent drift, so this is a convenience rather than a safety net - but naming the site beats reading rustc, and the `Vst3Plugin` impl sits behind a cfg, so a default build never reports it at all. Renaming the types is optional: leave the canonical values alone and the checks stay green. TODO markers are reported at a new informational level that never counts toward pass/fail. They are legitimate while building, so failing on them would just train you to ignore the run - but a finished plugin should not quietly ship with five of them. Two bugs surfaced while testing this: - The stale scan drew its file list from `git ls-files`, which returns nothing outside a checkout. In an exported tarball every stale spelling was therefore reported absent - the section passed hardest exactly when it could see least. It now falls back to `find` and says which source it used. - `grep -c` prints 0 and exits 1 when there are no matches, so the TODO count's `|| echo 0` appended a second zero and produced an unparseable value once a rename removed the last TODO. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01WHt4DykxXaQnyaJfyS8KCn
5.0 KiB
NIH-plug Template
Minimal scaffold for new NIH-plug audio plugins (Rust + CLAP/VST3 + egui).
Based on patterns from musiikki/codename-206.
Quick Start
# Clone this repo as your starting point
git clone http://192.168.2.199:3005/musiikki/nih-plug-template my-plugin
cd my-plugin
# Edit: src/lib.rs, Cargo.toml, bundler.toml — replace placeholder values
# See musiikki/codename-206 for a real-world example of how to fill these in
# Then verify the rename landed everywhere
sh check-branding.sh
Renaming
Branding is duplicated across Cargo.toml, bundler.toml, src/lib.rs and the docs,
and nothing makes those agree — so a half-finished rename builds a bundle under one name
while the docs and deploy script look for another.
check-branding.sh declares the identity once at the top and asserts every copy matches:
sh check-branding.sh # exit 0 = consistent, 1 = drift found
It covers the identity a host actually sees (package and bundle names, Plugin::NAME,
VENDOR, EMAIL, CLAP_ID, VST3_CLASS_ID, the descriptions) and the Rust type names
(MyPlugin, PluginParams) at every site they appear. Renaming the types is cosmetic —
no host ever sees them — but leaving MyPlugin in a shipped plugin is the kind of residue
that says nobody read the file. Leave them as-is and those checks simply stay green.
To rename: edit the canonical block at the top of the script, run it, and fix everything
it reports. The placeholder spellings are pre-seeded into its STALE list, and each one
arms itself as soon as you change the matching canonical value — so leftovers surface
without you having to track them. It also asserts VST3_CLASS_ID is exactly 16 bytes and
that CLAP_ID is reverse-DNS safe, both of which are otherwise a compile error or a
silent identity change between machines.
Checks for files the template doesn't ship (e.g. a deploy.ps1) report as skip and
start enforcing once you add them.
Build
# Install Rust via rustup: https://rustup.rs
# No VST3 SDK needed — NIH-plug bundles its own bindings.
# Build + bundle the CLAP (default)
cargo xtask bundle nih_plug_template --release
# Add the VST3 as well — see the licensing note below before you do this
cargo xtask bundle nih_plug_template --release --features vst3
Output: target/bundled/<name>.clap (and <name>.vst3 with --features vst3), where
<name> is the name set in bundler.toml — not the crate name. Out of the box that
means target/bundled/Plugin Name.clap.
On Linux the egui editor needs the GUI development headers:
sudo apt install pkg-config libgl-dev libx11-dev libxcursor-dev libxcb1-dev \
libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-dri2-0-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev
Deploy
FL Studio
Build with --features vst3 first if you want the VST3 (see the licensing note below).
FL Studio scans C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 by default, ignores directory junctions
(so a symlinked bundle is invisible to its scanner), and caches failed scans.
- Copy the
.vst3bundle to a folder FL scans (e.g.C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3). - Copy the
.clapbundle to a folder FL scans (e.g.C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP). - In FL Studio: Options → Manage plugins → tick "Rescan previously failed plugins" → Find installed plugins, then search for your plugin name (set in
bundler.toml).
Linux
# CLAP
cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.clap" ~/.clap/
# VST3 (only exists if you built with --features vst3)
cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.vst3" ~/.vst3/
# Or globally:
# sudo cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.clap" /usr/lib/clap/
# sudo cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.vst3" /usr/lib/vst3/
Project Structure
Cargo.toml # Package deps + the opt-in `vst3` feature — NIH-plug pinned to codename-206's rev
bundler.toml # Bundle name for `cargo xtask bundle`
src/lib.rs # Plugin skeleton — params, DSP, and egui editor, with one example gain param
xtask/ # Bundler xtask (cargo xtask bundle)
.cargo/config.toml # xtask alias
check-branding.sh # Asserts the plugin's identity strings agree everywhere (see Renaming)
.gitattributes # Pins *.sh to LF so Windows checkouts keep a valid shebang
License
Apache-2.0
VST3 Licensing Note
NIH-plug's VST3 bindings (vst3-sys) are GPLv3. Linking them makes the resulting binary
GPLv3 regardless of what Cargo.toml declares, so VST3 is behind an opt-in vst3 feature
and this template builds CLAP only by default. That keeps the default build consistent with
the Apache-2.0 licence in Cargo.toml/LICENSE.
If you want to ship a VST3:
- Build with
--features vst3. - Relicense your plugin as GPLv3 (or obtain a commercial Steinberg licence) and update
Cargo.toml,LICENSE, and the SPDX headers insrc/. - Accept Steinberg's VST3 SDK licence.
CLAP has no such restriction.