Is there a way to lazy-load plugin just before loading another plugin?

[schardev]

I have something like this in my plugins file:

use({
    {
        "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp",
        event = "InsertEnter",
        config = function()
            require("configs.nvim-cmp")
        end,
    },
    { "hrsh7th/cmp-buffer", after = "nvim-cmp" },
})

Since I lazy-loaded nvim-cmp, I only want to load it's dependencies like cmp-buffer only when it's actually required.

Now, the problem with above code is that nvim-cmp won't register cmp-buffer source when lazy-loaded as it needs to be loaded before nvim-cmp. Hence doing so with after key in packer plugin spec won't work.

So, is there a way to load a plugin (cmp-buffer) only when (and before) loading a plugin that requires it (nvim-cmp).

[mblarsen]

There is a :PackerLoad command that loads opt plugins. I don't know if there is an API version of that.
But perhaps you could set:

  use({ "hrsh7th/cmp-buffer", opt = true }) -- this makes it lazy

and

use({
        "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp",
        event = "InsertEnter",
        config = function()
            require("configs.nvim-cmp")
            cmd([[ PackerLoad cmp-buffer ]]) -- this loads cmp-buffer 
        end,
    })

I do this for lazy loading themes.

[arsham]

Try this:

use({
  "hrsh7th/nvim-cmp",
  requires = {
    { "hrsh7th/cmp-buffer",   after = "nvim-cmp" },
    {
      "L3MON4D3/LuaSnip",
      requires = { "rafamadriz/friendly-snippets" },
      config   = function() require("settings.luasnip") end,
      event    = { "BufNewFile", "BufRead", "InsertEnter" },
    },
    { "saadparwaiz1/cmp_luasnip", after = "nvim-cmp" },
  },
  after  = { "LuaSnip", "nvim-treesitter" } ,
  wants  = { "LuaSnip" },
  config = function() require("settings.cmp") end,
  event  = { "BufNewFile", "BufRead", "InsertEnter" },
})

I have added more dependencies here as examples. Anything in the requires section will be loaded once any of the events are fired, and after the nvim-cmp is loaded.

[schardev]

Apologies for getting back to this a bit late. Unfortunately the solution by @mblarsen does not seem to work with nvim-cmp and to be honest I do not like the verbosity of the solution by @arsham (though I haven't checked if it works or not). Also I'm starting to think this is because of how cmp is structured as a similar issue was posted there a while ago (see hrsh7th/nvim-cmp#65 for more info).