│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ ╰───┴─────╯                   │
│ 2 │ example │ false      │         │ .../nu_plugin_example │       │ ╭───┬───────────────────────╮ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ │ 0 │ nu-example-1          │ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ │ 1 │ nu-example-2          │ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ │ 2 │ nu-example-3          │ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ │ 3 │ nu-example-config     │ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ │ 4 │ nu-example-disable-gc │ │
│   │         │            │         │                       │       │ ╰───┴───────────────────────╯ │
╰───┴─────────┴────────────┴─────────┴───────────────────────┴───────┴───────────────────────────────╯
```

All of the commands from installed plugins are available in the current scope:

```nu
scope commands | where type == "plugin"
```

### Plugin Lifecycle

Plugins stay running while they are in use, and are automatically stopped by default after a period of time of inactivity. This behavior is managed by the [plugin garbage collector](#plugin-garbage-collector). To manually stop a plugin, call `plugin stop` with its name:

For example, run the `gstat` command from the corresponding plugin, then check its `is_running` status:

```nu
gstat
# => gstat output
plugin list | where name == gstat | select name is_running
# =>
╭───┬───────┬────────────╮
│ # │ name  │ is_running │
├───┼───────┼────────────┤
│ 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: {