mikkeli
fc45d3eec0
Two things in the build instructions were wrong rather than merely thin. The stated output paths (`nih_plug_template.vst3`) are not what the bundler produces: `cargo xtask bundle` names artifacts from the `name` key in bundler.toml, so a fresh clone actually yields `Plugin Name.vst3`. Anyone following the deploy steps verbatim would copy a path that does not exist. The VST3 artifact is also a directory bundle, so the `cp` needed `-r` to work at all. The egui editor pulls in baseview and x11, whose build scripts abort on a missing `gl.pc` with a pkg-config error that says nothing about this project. Naming the packages up front turns a confusing first-build failure into a one-line fix. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01WHt4DykxXaQnyaJfyS8KCn
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
Build
# Install Rust via rustup: https://rustup.rs
# No VST3 SDK needed — NIH-plug bundles its own bindings.
# Build + bundle the VST3 and CLAP
cargo xtask bundle nih_plug_template --release
Output: target/bundled/<name>.vst3 and <name>.clap, where <name> is the name set
in bundler.toml — not the crate name. Out of the box that means
target/bundled/Plugin Name.vst3.
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
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
# VST3
cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.vst3" ~/.vst3/
# CLAP
cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.clap" ~/.clap/
# Or globally:
# sudo cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.vst3" /usr/lib/vst3/
# sudo cp -r "target/bundled/Plugin Name.clap" /usr/lib/clap/
Project Structure
Cargo.toml # Package deps — NIH-plug pinned to codename-206's rev
bundler.toml # Bundle name for `cargo xtask bundle`
src/lib.rs # Plugin skeleton — fill in params, DSP, editor
xtask/ # Bundler xtask (cargo xtask bundle)
.cargo/config.toml # xtask alias
License
Apache-2.0
VST3 Licensing Note
You must accept Steinberg's VST3 SDK licence before distributing VST3 binaries. NIH-plug's VST3 bindings are GPLv3; if you distribute, the plugin must also be GPLv3 (or you need a commercial Steinberg licence). CLAP has no such restriction.