Plugins

Nuxt Kit provides a set of utilities to help you create and use plugins. You can add plugins or plugin templates to your module using these functions.

Plugins are self-contained code that usually add app-level functionality to Vue. In Nuxt, plugins are automatically imported from the plugins/ directory. However, if you need to ship a plugin with your module, Nuxt Kit provides the addPlugin and addPluginTemplate methods. These utils allow you to customize the plugin configuration to better suit your needs.

addPlugin

Registers a Nuxt plugin and adds it to the plugins array.

Watch Vue School video about addPlugin.

Usage

import { addPlugin, createResolver, defineNuxtModule } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtModule({
  setup () {
    const { resolve } = createResolver(import.meta.url)

    addPlugin({
      src: resolve('runtime/plugin.js'),
      mode: 'client',
    })
  },
})

Type

function addPlugin(plugin: NuxtPlugin | string, options?: AddPluginOptions): NuxtPlugin

Parameters

plugin: A plugin object or a string with the path to the plugin. If a string is provided, it will be converted to a plugin object with src set to the string value.

If a plugin object is provided, it must have the following properties:

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
srcstringtruePath to the plugin file.
mode'all' | 'server' | 'client'falseIf set to 'all', the plugin will be included in both client and server bundles. If set to 'server', the plugin will only be included in the server bundle. If set to 'client', the plugin will only be included in the client bundle. You can also use .client and .server modifiers when specifying src option to use plugin only in client or server side.
ordernumberfalseOrder of the plugin. This allows more granular control over plugin order and should only be used by advanced users. Lower numbers run first, and user plugins default to 0. It's recommended to set order to a number between -20 for pre-plugins (plugins that run before Nuxt plugins) and 20 for post-plugins (plugins that run after Nuxt plugins).
Avoid using order unless necessary. Use append if you simply need to register plugins after Nuxt defaults.

options: Optional object with the following properties:

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
appendbooleanfalseIf true, the plugin will be appended to the plugins array. If false, it will be prepended. Defaults to false.

Examples

import { addPlugin, createResolver, defineNuxtModule } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtModule({
  setup () {
    const { resolve } = createResolver(import.meta.url)

    addPlugin({
      src: resolve('runtime/plugin.js'),
      mode: 'client',
    })
  },
})

addPluginTemplate

Adds a template and registers as a nuxt plugin. This is useful for plugins that need to generate code at build time.

Watch Vue School video about addPluginTemplate.

Usage

import { addPluginTemplate, defineNuxtModule } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtModule({
  setup (options) {
    addPluginTemplate({
      filename: 'module-plugin.mjs',
      getContents: () => `import { defineNuxtPlugin } from '#app/nuxt'
export default defineNuxtPlugin({
  name: 'module-plugin',
  setup (nuxtApp) {
    ${options.log ? 'console.log("Plugin install")' : ''}
  }
})`,
    })
  },
})

Type

function addPluginTemplate(pluginOptions: NuxtPluginTemplate, options?: AddPluginOptions): NuxtPlugin

Parameters

pluginOptions: A plugin template object with the following properties:

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
srcstringfalsePath to the template. If src is not provided, getContents must be provided instead.
filenamestringfalseFilename of the template. If filename is not provided, it will be generated from the src path. In this case, the src option is required.
dststringfalsePath to the destination file. If dst is not provided, it will be generated from the filename path and nuxt buildDir option.
mode'all' | 'server' | 'client'falseIf set to 'all', the plugin will be included in both client and server bundles. If set to 'server', the plugin will only be included in the server bundle. If set to 'client', the plugin will only be included in the client bundle. You can also use .client and .server modifiers when specifying src option to use plugin only in client or server side.
optionsRecord<string, any>falseOptions to pass to the template.
getContents(data: Record<string, any>) => string | Promise<string>falseA function that will be called with the options object. It should return a string or a promise that resolves to a string. If src is provided, this function will be ignored.
writebooleanfalseIf set to true, the template will be written to the destination file. Otherwise, the template will be used only in virtual filesystem.
ordernumberfalseOrder of the plugin. This allows more granular control over plugin order and should only be used by advanced users. Lower numbers run first, and user plugins default to 0. It's recommended to set order to a number between -20 for pre-plugins (plugins that run before Nuxt plugins) and 20 for post-plugins (plugins that run after Nuxt plugins).
Prefer using getContents for dynamic plugin generation. Avoid setting order unless necessary.

options: Optional object with the following properties:

PropertyTypeRequiredDescription
appendbooleanfalseIf true, the plugin will be appended to the plugins array. If false, it will be prepended. Defaults to false.

Examples

Generate a plugin template with different options

Use addPluginTemplate when you need to generate plugin code dynamically at build time. This allows you to generate different plugin contents based on the options passed to it. For example, Nuxt internally uses this function to generate Vue app configurations.

module.ts
import { addPluginTemplate, defineNuxtModule } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtModule({
  setup (_, nuxt) {
    if (nuxt.options.vue.config && Object.values(nuxt.options.vue.config).some(v => v !== null && v !== undefined)) {
      addPluginTemplate({
        filename: 'vue-app-config.mjs',
        write: true,
        getContents: () => `import { defineNuxtPlugin } from '#app/nuxt'
export default defineNuxtPlugin({
  name: 'nuxt:vue-app-config',
  enforce: 'pre',
  setup (nuxtApp) {
    ${Object.keys(nuxt.options.vue.config!)
        .map(k => `nuxtApp.vueApp.config[${JSON.stringify(k)}] = ${JSON.stringify(nuxt.options.vue.config![k as 'idPrefix'])}`)
        .join('\n')
    }
  }
})`,
      })
    }
  },
})

This generates different plugin code depending on the provided configuration.

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  vue: {
    config: {
      idPrefix: 'nuxt',
    },
  },
})

Using an EJS template to generate a plugin

You can also use an EJS template to generate your plugin. Options can be passed through the options property and then used within the EJS template to generate the plugin content.

import { addPluginTemplate, createResolver, defineNuxtModule } from '@nuxt/kit'

export default defineNuxtModule({
  setup (options, nuxt) {
    const { resolve } = createResolver(import.meta.url)

    addPluginTemplate({
      src: resolve('templates/plugin.ejs'),
      filename: 'plugin.mjs',
      options: {
        ssr: nuxt.options.ssr,
      },
    })
  },
})
If you set compatibilityVersion to 4, Nuxt no longer uses lodash.template to compile templates by default. You can still enable it via the experimental.compileTemplate option, but support for EJS templates will be removed entirely in the next major version.