├───┼───────┼────────────┤
│ 0 │ gstat │ true       │
╰───┴───────┴────────────╯
```

Now stop the plugin manually, and we can see that it is no longer running:

```nu
plugin stop gstat
plugin list | where name == gstat | select name is_running
# =>
╭───┬───────┬────────────╮
│ # │ name  │ is_running │
├───┼───────┼────────────┤
│ 0 │ gstat │ false      │
╰───┴───────┴────────────╯
```

### Plugin Garbage Collector

As mentioned above, Nu comes with a plugin garbage collector which automatically stops plugins that are not actively in use after a period of time (by default, 10 seconds). This behavior is fully configurable:

```nu
$env.config.plugin_gc = {
    # Settings for plugins not otherwise specified:
    default: {
        enabled: true # set to false to never automatically stop plugins
        stop_after: 10sec # how long to wait after the plugin is inactive before stopping it
    }
    # Settings for specific plugins, by plugin name
    # (i.e. what you see in `plugin list`):
    plugins: {
        gstat: {
            stop_after: 1min
        }
        inc: {
            stop_after: 0sec # stop as soon as possible
        }
        example: {
            enabled: false # never stop automatically
        }
    }
}
```

For information on when a plugin is considered to be active, see [the relevant section in the contributor book](/contributor-book/plugins.html#plugin-garbage-collection).

## Removing Plugins

To remove a plugin, call `plugin rm <plugin_name>`. Note that this is the plugin name, rather than the filename. For example, if you previously added the plugin `~/.cargo/bin/nu_plugin_gstat`, its name would be `gstat`. To remove it:

```nu
plugin rm gstat
```

You can confirm the name of a plugin by running `plugin list`.

Running `plugin rm` removes the plugin from the registry so that it will not be loaded the next time Nushell starts. However, any commands created by the plugin remain in scope until the current Nushell session ends.

## For Plugin Developers

Nu plugins are executables; Nu launches them as needed and communicates with them over [stdin and stdout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_streams) or [local sockets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-process_communication). Nu plugins can use either [JSON](https://www.json.org/) or [MessagePack](https://msgpack.org/) as their communication encoding.

### Examples

Nu's main repo contains example plugins that are useful for learning how the plugin protocol works:

- [Rust](https://github.com/nushell/nushell/tree/main/crates/nu_plugin_example)
- [Python](https://github.com/nushell/nushell/blob/main/crates/nu_plugin_python)

### Debugging

The simplest way to debug a plugin is to print to stderr; plugins' standard error streams are redirected through Nu and displayed to the user.

#### Tracing

The Nu plugin protocol message stream may be captured for diagnostic purposes using [trace_nu_plugin](https://crates.io/crates/trace_nu_plugin/).

::: warning
Trace output will accumulate for as long as the plugin is installed with the trace wrapper. Large files are possible. Be sure to remove the plugin with `plugin rm` when finished tracing, and reinstall without the trace wrapper.\*\*
:::

### Developer Help

Nu's plugin documentation is a work in progress. If you're unsure about something, the #plugins channel on [the Nu Discord](https://discord.gg/NtAbbGn) is a great place to ask questions!

### More details

The [plugin chapter in the contributor book](/contributor-book/plugins.md) offers more details on the intricacies of how plugins work from a software developer point of view.