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Plugins

Plugins

.md

What a plugin is in Loam, where it lives in your vault, how Loam loads it, and how to turn it on or off.

In Loam, every feature is a plugin, built in or written by you. A plugin adds commands, offers services to other plugins, and can add pages and panels to the window. This page explains what a plugin is, where a vault plugin lives, and how you turn plugins on and off.

What a plugin adds

  • Commands: actions you run from the palette, from the loam command line, or from an AI agent.
  • Services: features other plugins can use, such as the note graph or tasks.
  • Events: messages sent when something changes, such as a file on disk.
  • Interface: pages, panels, slash menu items and overlays, for plugins with a UI part.

Built-in and vault plugins

Built-in plugins come with the app. Settings > Plugins lists them in two groups, Features and Services. A vault plugin is one you add to your vault. Its source lives in the vault, so it travels with your notes, and Loam compiles it on each Mac.

Where a vault plugin lives

.loam/plugins/<id>/            the plugin's source: plugin.json and a Swift package
.loam/cache/plugins/<id>/      the compiled library, rebuilt from the source

The folder under .loam/plugins/ is the part you share. The cache is disposable: loam plugin build recreates it. Never edit .loam/cache/ by hand.

How a vault plugin loads

Loam reads each plugin.json first and loads no code at that point. It opens the compiled library only for plugins you turned on. Safe mode never loads vault plugins.

Turn a plugin on or off

A vault plugin stays off until you enable it. Enabling is a deliberate step, because a plugin runs with the same access as the app. Read Permissions first.

  • In the app: open Settings > Plugins and use the switch on the plugin row.
  • In a terminal: loam plugin enable <id> turns a plugin on, and loam plugin disable <id> turns it off.

Turning a plugin off stops it, but its code stays in memory until Loam quits. The commands of a plugin that is off are not listed by loam list.

For AI agents: loam guide plugins explains how to build a plugin, step by step. loam plugin list shows every plugin, its source, and whether it is enabled.

Next, read Build your first plugin.