Plugins

uniconv’s functionality comes from plugins. There are two types:

Type	Language	Interface	Best for
Native	C/C++	Shared library (.so/.dylib/.dll)	Performance-critical operations
CLI	Any	Subprocess + JSON protocol	Rapid development, scripting languages

Managing plugins

# List installed plugins
uniconv plugin list

# Search the registry
uniconv plugin search image

# Install a plugin
uniconv plugin install data-convert

# Install a specific version
uniconv plugin install data-convert@1.0.0

# Install an entire collection
uniconv plugin install +essentials

# Update plugins
uniconv plugin update --all

# Remove a plugin
uniconv plugin remove data-convert

# Show plugin details
uniconv plugin info data-convert

Available plugins

Plugin	Type	Targets	Description
`image-convert`	Native (C++)	jpg, png, webp, gif, heic, …	Image format conversion via libvips
`video-convert`	Native (C++)	mp4, mov, avi, webm, gif, …	Video format conversion via FFmpeg
`audio-convert`	Native (C++)	mp3, aac, wav, flac, ogg, …	Audio format conversion via FFmpeg
`doc-convert`	CLI (Python)	pdf, docx, odt, xlsx, md, …	Document conversion via LibreOffice
`data-convert`	CLI (Python)	json, csv, yaml, xml, toml, …	Structured data format conversion

Plugin specifier syntax

In pipelines, use [scope/plugin:]target[.extension] to specify plugins explicitly:

# Automatic plugin resolution
uniconv photo.heic "jpg"

# Explicit plugin
uniconv photo.heic "uniconv/image-convert:jpg --quality 90"

# Explicit output extension (when target != extension)
uniconv data.postgis "geo/postgis:extract.geojson"

Plugin manifest

Each plugin has a plugin.json manifest. Key fields:

Field	Type	Default	Description
`targets`	`map` or `array`	—	Supported targets. Array shortcut: `["jpg", "png"]`. Map: `{"extract": ["geojson", "csv"]}`
`accepts`	`string[]` (optional)	omit = accept all	Input formats accepted. Omitted = any, `[]` = none
`sink`	`bool`	`false`	Terminal plugin that owns output (upload, save)

Windows notes

All plugins support Windows. A few things to keep in mind:

Native plugins (image-convert, video-convert, audio-convert) bundle their dependency DLLs alongside the plugin .dll. These are loaded automatically.
doc-convert requires LibreOffice installed on your system. Pandoc is bundled automatically.
CLI plugins (Python-based) require Python 3.8+ in your PATH. Plugin install creates a virtual environment and installs Python dependencies automatically.

Writing plugins

See the Contributing Guide for plugin authoring instructions.