vem-plugins

The official plugins for Vem, a canvas-native modal editor. Each plugin is a standalone @vemjs/plugin-api VemPlugin — a plain object with an activate(context) function — published as its own npm package so consumers only install what they use.

Packages

Package	What it does
@vemjs/plugin-autopairs	Auto-closes brackets/quotes in INSERT mode, with type-over instead of duplicating
@vemjs/plugin-git	Gutter add/change/delete signs from git diff (Node/Bun runtimes only)
@vemjs/plugin-layout-customizer	Toggle sidebar position/statusbar position, resize the sidebar
@vemjs/plugin-lualine	A lualine-style statusline (mode/file/position segments)
@vemjs/plugin-telescope	Fuzzy file finder and help-tag picker (:Telescope-style popups)
@vemjs/plugin-treesitter	Syntax highlighting (:syntax on)
@vemjs/plugin-trim-whitespace	Strips trailing whitespace on save

Most of these are deferred/opt-in by default in vem.run and vem-desktop — Vem boots as a faithfully blank Vim, and appearance plugins (lualine, treesitter) activate on demand via :Lualine / :syntax on.

Development

Each plugin is a Bun workspace member with its own package.json, tests, and build:

git clone https://github.com/vemjs/vem-plugins.git
cd vem-plugins
bun install
bun test        # runs every plugin's test suite
bun run build    # builds every plugin

To work on one plugin in isolation:

cd autopairs
bun test

Writing a new plugin

A VemPlugin is:

import { type VemPlugin } from "@vemjs/plugin-api";

export const MyPlugin: VemPlugin = {
  name: "my-plugin",
  version: "0.1.0",
  activate(context) {
    const editor = context.editorState;
    // context.onDidChangeBuffer / onDidChangeMode / onDidOpenBuffer / onSave,
    // context.registerCommand, context.registerKeybinding — see @vemjs/plugin-api.
  },
};

Plugins that need real system access (shelling out, filesystem, native APIs) only work in a Node/Bun runtime — both vem.run's browser build and vem-desktop's Tauri webview always have window defined and no child_process, so gate any such logic on typeof window === "undefined" and fail closed (no fabricated behavior) rather than guessing, the way @vemjs/plugin-git does for its git diff gutter signs.

Versioning and releases

Each plugin is versioned independently via Changesets. Add one for any user-visible change:

bun run changeset

Merging to main with pending changesets opens (or updates) a "Version Packages" PR; merging that PR publishes the bumped packages to npm automatically.

Related repositories

• vem — the editor engine these plugins target (@vemjs/core, @vemjs/plugin-api)
• vem-website — vem.run, which loads the official plugin set from this repo
• vem-desktop — the desktop shell, same plugin set

License

MIT