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.

1. Copy the .vst3 bundle to a folder FL scans (e.g. C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3).
2. Copy the .clap bundle to a folder FL scans (e.g. C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP).
3. 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
.github/workflows/  # CI: branding check, both feature sets build, test, bundle

CI

.github/workflows/ci.yaml gates pushes and PRs on the branding check, a build of both feature sets, cargo test, and a bundle — enough to catch a rename that only half-landed, a cfg(feature = "vst3") gate that stopped compiling, or a bundler.toml that no longer matches the crate name.

It targets runs-on: rust-audio, an org-scoped runner label. A plugin cloned into a different org will not see that runner and its jobs will queue indefinitely rather than fail — register a runner advertising the label for that org, or change runs-on.

Deliberately not covered: plugin performance. Realtime cost can only be measured meaningfully against a real audio deadline, and Plugin::process() cannot be called from a test at all (ProcessContext requires a Transport, whose constructor and fields are pub(crate) to nih-plug). Benchmark your DSP types directly if you need it.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE for the terms and NOTICE for third-party attribution.

Plugins cloned from this template inherit GPL-3.0-or-later, because the template's own code is under it. If you need a permissive plugin, this is the wrong starting point — write the skeleton yourself against NIH-plug directly, which is ISC.

Parts of src/lib.rs derive from Robbert van der Helm's NIH-plug cookiecutter template and gain example, both ISC. ISC is GPL-compatible, so that notice is retained in NOTICE rather than superseded.

VST3 and Steinberg

vst3-sys, which nih_export_vst3!() needs, is GPLv3-or-later — chosen by its own authors, who describe their port as a derivative of Steinberg's SDK that "was not made in isolation." That obligation is what makes a distributed VST3 build GPL-licensed, and it holds regardless of any question about Steinberg's own rights. Being GPL-3.0-or-later already, this template satisfies it.

No Steinberg SDK source is vendored or redistributed here, so there is nothing to accept at build time. Separately from copyright, "VST" is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH; describing a distributed product as a VST plugin is governed by their trademark terms. If you intend to distribute commercially under that name, that is the part worth legal advice.

CLAP carries none of this — no GPL dependency and no trademark encumbrance.