limactl help and info flag should show available plugins #3973

olamilekan000 · 2025-09-05T11:59:55Z

change adds functionality to display Plugins in the info and list commands

Fixes #3608 (comment)

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

jandubois · 2025-09-05T17:06:44Z

I'm wondering if the plugins could also be added to tab completion (could be in a separate PR if it is more complex).

olamilekan000 · 2025-09-05T18:35:28Z

I'm wondering if the plugins could also be added to tab completion (could be in a separate PR if it is more complex).

It can be done in another PR

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

jandubois · 2025-09-05T23:10:57Z

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

+	return false
+}
+
+func getPluginDescription(path string) string {


This doesn't seem like a very useful way to find a description; the best it can deliver is "Alias for foo", which might just as well be wrong because it likely has some modified behaviour too.

If we want to provide descriptions, then I think we need to define some kind of comment pattern we can scan for. And since the plugin can be a compiled binary, we would need to scan the whole file for it because the string would be in some kind of data segment in the file.

So I would suggest to use some kind of delimiters that don't look to horrible in a shell script, and would also be unique in a compiled executable. E.g.

# <limactl> Run MCP servers in a sandbox </limactl>

Trim whitespace from the text between delimiters and you have your description.

This is just a suggestion; better ideas welcome!

I did think about this, but I wasn't sure if it was necessary since it's just an Alias which was why I sort of wen with the "Alias for foo" approach. But since you've mentioned it, I'll just add it

I've thought about this some more, and think my suggestion is too much of a hack.

I think this is better:

Call limactl-PLUGIN --help

If the exit code is not zero → no description

If the first line of the output contains the string --help → no description

The description is the first line of the output

This automatically makes limactl PLUGIN --help too, and even piggy-backs on existing commands, if they are just aliases:

❯ limactl ls --help | head -1 List instances of Lima.

So if the plugin is just an alias, it will use the first line of the help of the original command as the description.

Sorry if you already started work on the delimiter-based approach, but I think this one will be better.

If the first line of the output contains the string --help → no description

Actually, I would reject the description if it contains any of these strings:

-- invalid illegal unrecognized unexpected unknown missing too many too few not found not supported usage: error failed

This should catch the case where the plugin just passes the --help argument to another tool that doesn't implement it.

It might be considered vulnerable to execute all limactl-* binaries under libexec and $PATH by default?
Maybe we can depend on xattr?

Just to summarize: I believe we have settled on using the --help approach (including documentation).

@jandubois

Call limactl-PLUGIN --help

If the exit code is not zero → no description

If the first line of the output contains the string --help → no description

The description is the first line of the output

I have a little issue with step4. In the case where the plugin logs an item before before the actual command is executed, it won't be accurate, and we might end up displaying something inaccurate in the description.
Here's an example.

#!/bin/sh # Sample limactl-shell alias that shows running instances # <limactl> Run shell script </limactl> echo "Running limactl-shell alias with arguments: $@" limactl shell "$@"

The first item that'd be logged when this plugin is executed will be

Running limactl-shell alias with arguments: --help

And then we end up with something like

Available Plugins (Experimental): sh Running limactl-shell alias with arguments: --help

Well, step 3 says if the line contains the string --help then it is not a description, so this would have no description because your first line ends with --help.

Note that matching just --help has been replaced in #3973 (comment) with matching any string from this list:

-- invalid illegal unrecognized unexpected unknown missing too many too few not found not supported usage: error failed

So the first pattern in the list (--) would have rejected your output as well.

Oh, I missed the --. But it means if it's just a plain echo statement without any arg and it doesn't contain any of the restricted words, It'd treated as a description even though it's incorrect.

It'd treated as a description even though it's incorrect.

It is a heuristic, and by definition that means that sometimes it will be wrong.

I think this is a reasonable compromise. You are more likely to get a description if you make it easy for the plugin author.

As a side effect limactl PLUGIN --help will automatically work too.

And typically the end user is creating/installing the plugin (it is an extension mechanism), so they can fix the issue easily.

The alternative of requiring some special markup before/after the description feels clumsy in comparison.

What other alternatives are there?

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

AkihiroSuda · 2025-09-06T03:28:46Z

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

+	}
+
+	if prefixDir, err := usrlocalsharelima.Prefix(); err == nil {
+		libexecDir := filepath.Join(prefixDir, "libexec", "lima")


https://lima-vm.io/docs/config/plugin/cli/#how-it-works needs to be updated to cover libexec

jandubois · 2025-09-08T17:18:32Z

pkg/plugin/plugin.go

+func getPluginDirectories() []string {
+	var dirs []string
+
+	if exe, err := os.Executable(); err == nil {


It just occurred to me that we probably want the logic from usrlocalsharelima.Dir() here: call executableViaArgs0() and fall back on os.Executable() if it fails.

If limactl is invoked via a symlink, then we want to locate additional plugins via the directory of the symlink and not via the directory where the executable itself is installed.

This is only relevant to Linux; on macOS os.Executable already returns the symlink path.

AkihiroSuda

Let's merge this, the CLI help strings can be addressed in another PR

AkihiroSuda · 2025-09-09T04:17:49Z

Needs rebase

olamilekan000 · 2025-09-09T10:17:16Z

@AkihiroSuda can you help reopen this pr. It was closed by mistake after rebase.

AkihiroSuda · 2025-09-09T10:25:15Z

@AkihiroSuda can you help reopen this pr. It was closed by mistake after rebase.

Can't reopen, could you open a new one?

olamilekan000 · 2025-09-09T11:33:52Z

I have opened another one here

olamilekan000 force-pushed the show-available-plugins-for-info-and-exec branch from b9c68fd to 2b71c8e Compare September 5, 2025 12:03

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command alias not found #3976

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Add a plugin mechanism to provide custom locator URL schemes #3937

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olamilekan000 dismissed AkihiroSuda’s stale review via 6809c31 September 9, 2025 10:08

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limactl help and info flag should show available plugins #3973

limactl help and info flag should show available plugins #3973

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olamilekan000 commented Sep 5, 2025

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AkihiroSuda commented Sep 9, 2025

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olamilekan000 commented Sep 9, 2025

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