Skip to content
Zinit Knowledge Base

meta-plugins

Summary

Section titled “Summary”

meta-plugins lets you install curated groups of related plugins with a single label and automatically applies optimised ice lists for each member, removing the need to track individual plugin ices or plugin names.

Details

Section titled “Details”

  • Problem it solves: Collecting and maintaining individual plugin invocations across machines is tedious. A meta-plugin groups related plugins under one name and manages their ices transparently.

  • Key capabilities:

    • One label installs multiple plugins with pre-tuned ices
    • Dependency handling: selecting a meta-plugin can automatically pull in required toolchains (e.g., console-tools pulls in rust-toolchain for source-built tools)
    • skip'plg-1 plg-2' ice lets you exclude specific sub-plugins from a group
    • Source-build variants exist alongside binary variants (e.g., fuzzy vs fuzzy-src)

  • Available meta-plugins (selection):

    • annexes — core zdharma-continuum annexes (unscope, patch-dl, rust, submods, bin-gem-node, as-monitor)
    • annexes+con — annexes plus zinit-console
    • zsh-users — zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-completions
    • zsh-users+fast — fast-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-completions
    • console-tools — fd, bat, hexyl, hyperfine, vivid, exa, ripgrep, tig
    • fuzzy — fzf, fzy, skim, peco (binary packages)
    • fuzzy-src — same tools built from source
    • sharkdp — fd, bat, hexyl, hyperfine, vivid
    • ext-git — git-recall, git-open, git-recent, git-my, git-quick-stats, git-now, git-extras, forgit
    • zdharma — fast-syntax-highlighting, history-search-multi-word, zsh-diff-so-fancy
    • rust-utils — rust-toolchain, cargo-extensions
    • prezto — PZTM::archive, PZTM::directory, PZTM::utility
    • developer — github-issues, molovo tools, gitignore, tig

  • Install:

    Terminal window
    zinit light zdharma-continuum/zinit-annex-meta-plugins

Examples

Section titled “Examples”
Terminal window
# Install 22 plugins across three groups in one line
zinit for annexes zsh-users+fast console-tools fuzzy


# Skip specific sub-plugins you don't want
zinit skip'ripgrep fd' for console-tools


# Install all annexes at once
zinit for annexes

Caveats / Common Mistakes

Section titled “Caveats / Common Mistakes”
  • The meta-plugin console-tools may trigger a Rust toolchain install if source-built tools are included; this takes significant time on first run.
  • Sub-plugin ices are managed by the annex — do not mix manual ices on a for call targeting a meta-plugin unless you understand the override precedence.