PluginVault

A tiny, fast audio plugin manager for Mac and Windows.

Scan your system, catalog every VST3, VST2, AU, AAX, and CLAP plugin, and organize them without touching your DAW. Free and open source.

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Why

Audio producers end up with hundreds of plugins scattered across a dozen directories. DAWs get slow, plugin menus become unusable, and cleaning up feels risky. PluginVault gives you a single view of everything you own and lets you safely disable what you don't use — without deleting anything.

Features

• Scans every major format — VST3, VST2, AU (Mac), AAX, CLAP
• Cross-platform — native desktop app for macOS and Windows
• Search, filter, sort — find anything in your library instantly (full-text search powered by SQLite FTS5)
• Group by vendor — collapse 400 plugins into a clean vendor tree
• Safe enable/disable — moves plugins to a disabled folder, never deletes. Full undo history.
• Collections — organize plugins into your own groups (Mixing, Mastering, Sound Design...)
• Notes — annotate any plugin with personal notes
• Export to CSV/Markdown — share your plugin library or back it up
• Fast rescans — cached hashes mean re-scans take seconds, not minutes
• 100% local — no telemetry, no cloud sync, no account needed. All data stays in a local SQLite file.
• Tiny — ~8MB download (Tauri + Rust, not Electron)

Install

macOS

1. Download the latest .dmg from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag PluginVault to Applications
3. First launch may require right-click → Open (Gatekeeper)

Windows

1. Download the latest .msi installer from Releases
2. Run the installer

How It Works

On first launch, PluginVault detects your standard plugin directories:

macOS

• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 + ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST + ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AU)
• /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins (AAX)
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP + ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP

Windows

• C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
• C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP
• Plus any paths in the Windows Registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\VST

You can add custom directories via Scanner → Add Path.

Disable ≠ Delete

PluginVault never deletes plugin files. When you disable a plugin, it's moved to a PluginVault Disabled folder next to the original location. To re-enable, click the toggle again — the file is moved back. Every toggle is logged in Recent Activity with one-click undo.

Privacy

PluginVault runs entirely on your device. Plugin metadata is stored in a local SQLite database at:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/com.pluginvault.app/pluginvault.db
• Windows: %APPDATA%\com.pluginvault.app\pluginvault.db

Zero telemetry. Zero tracking. No cloud sync. No account required.

Build From Source

Prerequisites

• Rust (1.75+)
• Node.js (18+)
• Platform-specific:
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
  • Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 with C++ workload

Build

git clone https://github.com/autonomous/pluginvault.git
cd pluginvault
npm install
npm run tauri build

Output:

• macOS: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/PluginVault_1.0.0_aarch64.dmg
• Windows: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/PluginVault_1.0.0_x64_en-US.msi

Develop

npm run tauri dev

Architecture

• Backend: Rust + Tauri v2 + SQLite (via rusqlite, bundled)
• Frontend: React 19 + TypeScript + Vite
• Database: SQLite with FTS5 full-text search
• Plugin scanning: walkdir + format-specific metadata parsers (moduleinfo.json for VST3, Info.plist for AU on macOS, PE version info for Windows)
• File operations: Canonicalized paths, symlink-safe, transactional DB upserts in batches of 50

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE.

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Built by Autonomous. Part of the Plugin Academy ecosystem.