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Vite plugins extend Rolldown’s plugin interface with Vite-specific options. You can write a plugin once and have it work for both dev and build.
It is recommended to go through Rolldown’s plugin documentation first before reading the sections below.

Authoring a Plugin

Vite strives to offer established patterns out of the box, so before creating a new plugin make sure that you check the Features guide to see if your need is covered. Also review available community plugins, both in the form of a compatible Rollup plugin and Vite Specific plugins. When creating a plugin, you can inline it in your vite.config.js. There is no need to create a new package for it.
When learning, debugging, or authoring plugins, we suggest including vite-plugin-inspect in your project. It allows you to inspect the intermediate state of Vite plugins. After installing, you can visit localhost:5173/__inspect/ to inspect the modules and transformation stack of your project.

Conventions

If the plugin doesn’t use Vite specific hooks and can be implemented as a Compatible Rolldown Plugin, then it is recommended to use the Rolldown Plugin naming conventions. Rolldown Plugins:
  • Should have a clear name with rolldown-plugin- prefix
  • Include rolldown-plugin and vite-plugin keywords in package.json
Vite Only Plugins:
  • Should have a clear name with vite-plugin- prefix
  • Include vite-plugin keyword in package.json
  • Include a section in the plugin docs detailing why it is a Vite only plugin
Framework-Specific Plugins:
  • vite-plugin-vue- prefix for Vue Plugins
  • vite-plugin-react- prefix for React Plugins
  • vite-plugin-svelte- prefix for Svelte Plugins

Plugin Configuration

Users add plugins to the project devDependencies and configure them using the plugins array option:
vite.config.js
import vitePlugin from 'vite-plugin-feature'
import rollupPlugin from 'rollup-plugin-feature'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [vitePlugin(), rollupPlugin()],
})
Falsy plugins will be ignored, which can be used to easily activate or deactivate plugins. plugins also accepts presets including several plugins as a single element:
// framework-plugin
import frameworkRefresh from 'vite-plugin-framework-refresh'
import frameworkDevtools from 'vite-plugin-framework-devtools'

export default function framework(config) {
  return [frameworkRefresh(config), frameworkDevTools(config)]
}

Simple Examples

It is common convention to author a Vite/Rolldown/Rollup plugin as a factory function that returns the actual plugin object. The function can accept options which allows users to customize the behavior of the plugin.

Transforming Custom File Types

const fileRegex = /\.(my-file-ext)$/

export default function myPlugin() {
  return {
    name: 'transform-file',

    transform(src, id) {
      if (fileRegex.test(id)) {
        return {
          code: compileFileToJS(src),
          map: null, // provide source map if available
        }
      }
    },
  }
}

Virtual Modules Convention

Virtual modules are a useful scheme that allows you to pass build time information to the source files using normal ESM import syntax.
export default function myPlugin() {
  const virtualModuleId = 'virtual:my-module'
  const resolvedVirtualModuleId = '\0' + virtualModuleId

  return {
    name: 'my-plugin', // required, will show up in warnings and errors
    resolveId(id) {
      if (id === virtualModuleId) {
        return resolvedVirtualModuleId
      }
    },
    load(id) {
      if (id === resolvedVirtualModuleId) {
        return `export const msg = "from virtual module"`
      }
    },
  }
}
Which allows importing the module in JavaScript:
import { msg } from 'virtual:my-module'

console.log(msg)
Virtual modules in Vite (and Rolldown / Rollup) are prefixed with virtual: for the user-facing path by convention. Internally, plugins that use virtual modules should prefix the module ID with \0 while resolving the id, a convention from the rollup ecosystem. This prevents other plugins from trying to process the id (like node resolution), and core features like sourcemaps can use this info to differentiate between virtual modules and regular files.

Universal Hooks

During dev, the Vite dev server creates a plugin container that invokes Rolldown Build Hooks the same way Rolldown does it.

Called on Server Start

The following hooks are called once on server start:
options
(options: RolldownOptions) => RolldownOptions | null
buildStart
(options: RolldownOptions) => void | Promise<void>

Called on Each Module Request

The following hooks are called on each incoming module request:
resolveId
ObjectHook
See Rolldown resolveId hookExtended with additional Vite-specific properties:
(this: PluginContext,
 source: string,
 importer: string | undefined,
 options: {
   kind?: ImportKind
   custom?: CustomPluginOptions
   ssr?: boolean | undefined
   scan?: boolean | undefined
   isEntry: boolean
 }) => Promise<ResolveIdResult> | ResolveIdResult
load
ObjectHook
See Rolldown load hookExtended with additional Vite-specific properties:
(this: PluginContext,
 id: string,
 options?: {
   ssr?: boolean | undefined
 }) => Promise<LoadResult> | LoadResult
transform
ObjectHook
See Rolldown transform hookExtended with additional Vite-specific properties:
(this: TransformPluginContext,
 code: string,
 id: string,
 options?: {
   moduleType: ModuleType
   ssr?: boolean | undefined
 }) => Promise<TransformResult> | TransformResult

Called on Server Close

The following hooks are called when the server is closed:
buildEnd
(error?: Error) => void | Promise<void>
closeBundle
() => void | Promise<void>
The moduleParsed hook is not called during dev, because Vite avoids full AST parses for better performance.Output Generation Hooks (except closeBundle) are not called during dev.

Vite Specific Hooks

Vite plugins can also provide hooks that serve Vite-specific purposes. These hooks are ignored by Rollup.

config

config
ObjectHook
Modify Vite config before it’s resolved.
(config: UserConfig, env: { mode: string, command: string }) =>
  UserConfig | null | void
Kind: async, sequentialThe hook receives the raw user config and can return a partial config object that will be deeply merged into existing config, or directly mutate the config.
Example:
// return partial config (recommended)
const partialConfigPlugin = () => ({
  name: 'return-partial',
  config: () => ({
    resolve: {
      alias: {
        foo: 'bar',
      },
    },
  }),
})

// mutate the config directly (use only when merging doesn't work)
const mutateConfigPlugin = () => ({
  name: 'mutate-config',
  config(config, { command }) {
    if (command === 'build') {
      config.root = 'foo'
    }
  },
})
User plugins are resolved before running this hook so injecting other plugins inside the config hook will have no effect.

configResolved

configResolved
ObjectHook
Called after the Vite config is resolved.
(config: ResolvedConfig) => void | Promise<void>
Kind: async, parallelUse this hook to read and store the final resolved config. It is also useful when the plugin needs to do something different based on the command being run.
Example:
const examplePlugin = () => {
  let config

  return {
    name: 'read-config',

    configResolved(resolvedConfig) {
      // store the resolved config
      config = resolvedConfig
    },

    // use stored config in other hooks
    transform(code, id) {
      if (config.command === 'serve') {
        // dev: plugin invoked by dev server
      } else {
        // build: plugin invoked by Rollup
      }
    },
  }
}
The command value is serve in dev (in the cli vite, vite dev, and vite serve are aliases).

configureServer

configureServer
ServerHook
Hook for configuring the dev server.
(server: ViteDevServer) => (() => void) | void | Promise<(() => void) | void>
Kind: async, sequentialThe most common use case is adding custom middlewares to the internal connect app.
Example:
const myPlugin = () => ({
  name: 'configure-server',
  configureServer(server) {
    server.middlewares.use((req, res, next) => {
      // custom handle request...
    })
  },
})
Injecting Post Middleware: The configureServer hook is called before internal middlewares are installed, so the custom middlewares will run before internal middlewares by default. If you want to inject a middleware after internal middlewares, you can return a function from configureServer:
const myPlugin = () => ({
  name: 'configure-server',
  configureServer(server) {
    // return a post hook that is called after internal middlewares are installed
    return () => {
      server.middlewares.use((req, res, next) => {
        // custom handle request...
      })
    }
  },
})
Storing Server Access: In some cases, other plugin hooks may need access to the dev server instance (e.g. accessing the WebSocket server, the file system watcher, or the module graph):
const myPlugin = () => {
  let server
  return {
    name: 'configure-server',
    configureServer(_server) {
      server = _server
    },
    transform(code, id) {
      if (server) {
        // use server...
      }
    },
  }
}
configureServer is not called when running the production build so your other hooks need to guard against its absence.

configurePreviewServer

configurePreviewServer
PreviewServerHook
Same as configureServer but for the preview server.
(server: PreviewServer) => (() => void) | void | Promise<(() => void) | void>
Kind: async, sequential
Example:
const myPlugin = () => ({
  name: 'configure-preview-server',
  configurePreviewServer(server) {
    // return a post hook that is called after other middlewares are installed
    return () => {
      server.middlewares.use((req, res, next) => {
        // custom handle request...
      })
    }
  },
})

transformIndexHtml

transformIndexHtml
IndexHtmlTransformHook
Dedicated hook for transforming HTML entry point files such as index.html.
type IndexHtmlTransformHook = (
  html: string,
  ctx: {
    path: string
    filename: string
    server?: ViteDevServer
    bundle?: import('rollup').OutputBundle
    chunk?: import('rollup').OutputChunk
  },
) => IndexHtmlTransformResult | void | Promise<IndexHtmlTransformResult | void>
Kind: async, sequentialThe hook receives the current HTML string and a transform context. The context exposes the ViteDevServer instance during dev, and exposes the Rollup output bundle during build.
The hook can be async and can return one of the following:
  • Transformed HTML string
  • An array of tag descriptor objects ({ tag, attrs, children }) to inject to the existing HTML
  • An object containing both as { html, tags }
By default order is undefined, with this hook applied after the HTML has been transformed. In order to inject a script that should go through the Vite plugins pipeline, order: 'pre' will apply the hook before processing the HTML. order: 'post' applies the hook after all hooks with order undefined are applied. Basic Example:
const htmlPlugin = () => {
  return {
    name: 'html-transform',
    transformIndexHtml(html) {
      return html.replace(
        /<title>(.*?)<\/title>/,
        `<title>Title replaced!</title>`,
      )
    },
  }
}
Full Hook Signature:
type IndexHtmlTransformResult =
  | string
  | HtmlTagDescriptor[]
  | {
      html: string
      tags: HtmlTagDescriptor[]
    }

interface HtmlTagDescriptor {
  tag: string
  attrs?: Record<string, string | boolean>
  children?: string | HtmlTagDescriptor[]
  /**
   * default: 'head-prepend'
   */
  injectTo?: 'head' | 'body' | 'head-prepend' | 'body-prepend'
}
This hook won’t be called if you are using a framework that has custom handling of entry files (for example SvelteKit).

handleHotUpdate

handleHotUpdate
ObjectHook
Perform custom HMR update handling.
(ctx: HmrContext) => Array<ModuleNode> | void | Promise<Array<ModuleNode> | void>
Kind: async, sequentialThe hook receives a context object with the following signature:
interface HmrContext {
  file: string
  timestamp: number
  modules: Array<ModuleNode>
  read: () => string | Promise<string>
  server: ViteDevServer
}
The hook can choose to:
  • Filter and narrow down the affected module list so that the HMR is more accurate.
  • Return an empty array and perform a full reload:
handleHotUpdate({ server, modules, timestamp }) {
  // Invalidate modules manually
  const invalidatedModules = new Set()
  for (const mod of modules) {
    server.moduleGraph.invalidateModule(
      mod,
      invalidatedModules,
      timestamp,
      true
    )
  }
  server.ws.send({ type: 'full-reload' })
  return []
}
  • Return an empty array and perform complete custom HMR handling by sending custom events to the client:
handleHotUpdate({ server }) {
  server.ws.send({
    type: 'custom',
    event: 'special-update',
    data: {}
  })
  return []
}
Client code should register corresponding handler using the HMR API:
if (import.meta.hot) {
  import.meta.hot.on('special-update', (data) => {
    // perform custom update
  })
}

Plugin Ordering

A Vite plugin can additionally specify an enforce property (similar to webpack loaders) to adjust its application order. The value of enforce can be either "pre" or "post". The resolved plugins will be in the following order:
  1. Alias
  2. User plugins with enforce: 'pre'
  3. Vite core plugins
  4. User plugins without enforce value
  5. Vite build plugins
  6. User plugins with enforce: 'post'
  7. Vite post build plugins (minify, manifest, reporting)
This is separate from hooks ordering, those are still separately subject to their order attribute as usual for Rolldown hooks.

Conditional Application

By default plugins are invoked for both serve and build. In cases where a plugin needs to be conditionally applied only during serve or build, use the apply property:
function myPlugin() {
  return {
    name: 'build-only',
    apply: 'build', // or 'serve'
  }
}
A function can also be used for more precise control:
apply(config, { command }) {
  // apply only on build but not for SSR
  return command === 'build' && !config.build.ssr
}

Rolldown Plugin Compatibility

A fair number of Rolldown / Rollup plugins will work directly as a Vite plugin (e.g. @rollup/plugin-alias or @rollup/plugin-json), but not all of them, since some plugin hooks do not make sense in an unbundled dev server context. In general, as long as a Rolldown / Rollup plugin fits the following criteria then it should just work as a Vite plugin:
  • It doesn’t use the moduleParsed hook
  • It doesn’t rely on Rolldown specific options like transform.inject
  • It doesn’t have strong coupling between bundle-phase hooks and output-phase hooks
If a Rolldown / Rollup plugin only makes sense for the build phase, then it can be specified under build.rolldownOptions.plugins instead. You can also augment an existing Rolldown / Rollup plugin with Vite-only properties:
vite.config.js
import example from 'rolldown-plugin-example'
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    {
      ...example(),
      enforce: 'post',
      apply: 'build',
    },
  ],
})

Client-Server Communication

Since Vite 2.9, we provide some utilities for plugins to help handle the communication with clients.

Server to Client

On the plugin side, we could use server.ws.send to broadcast events to the client:
vite.config.js
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    {
      // ...
      configureServer(server) {
        server.ws.on('connection', () => {
          server.ws.send('my:greetings', { msg: 'hello' })
        })
      },
    },
  ],
})
We recommend always prefixing your event names to avoid collisions with other plugins.
On the client side, use hot.on to listen to the events:
// client side
if (import.meta.hot) {
  import.meta.hot.on('my:greetings', (data) => {
    console.log(data.msg) // hello
  })
}

Client to Server

To send events from the client to the server, we can use hot.send:
// client side
if (import.meta.hot) {
  import.meta.hot.send('my:from-client', { msg: 'Hey!' })
}
Then use server.ws.on and listen to the events on the server side:
vite.config.js
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    {
      // ...
      configureServer(server) {
        server.ws.on('my:from-client', (data, client) => {
          console.log('Message from client:', data.msg) // Hey!
          // reply only to the client (if needed)
          client.send('my:ack', { msg: 'Hi! I got your message!' })
        })
      },
    },
  ],
})

TypeScript for Custom Events

Internally, vite infers the type of a payload from the CustomEventMap interface, it is possible to type custom events by extending the interface:
Make sure to include the .d.ts extension when specifying TypeScript declaration files. Otherwise, Typescript may not know which file the module is trying to extend.
events.d.ts
import 'vite/types/customEvent.d.ts'

declare module 'vite/types/customEvent.d.ts' {
  interface CustomEventMap {
    'custom:foo': { msg: string }
    // 'event-key': payload
  }
}
This interface extension is utilized by InferCustomEventPayload<T> to infer the payload type for event T:
import type { InferCustomEventPayload } from 'vite/types/customEvent.d.ts'

type CustomFooPayload = InferCustomEventPayload<'custom:foo'>
import.meta.hot?.on('custom:foo', (payload) => {
  // The type of payload will be { msg: string }
})
import.meta.hot?.on('unknown:event', (payload) => {
  // The type of payload will be any
})

Hook Filters

Rolldown introduced a hook filter feature to reduce the communication overhead between the Rust and JavaScript runtimes. This feature allows plugins to specify patterns that determine when hooks should be called, improving performance by avoiding unnecessary hook invocations. This is also supported by Rollup 4.38.0+ and Vite 6.3.0+. To make your plugin backward compatible with older versions, make sure to also run the filter inside the hook handlers.
export default function myPlugin() {
  const jsFileRegex = /\.js$/

  return {
    name: 'my-plugin',
    // Example: only call transform for .js files
    transform: {
      filter: {
        id: jsFileRegex,
      },
      handler(code, id) {
        // Additional check for backward compatibility
        if (!jsFileRegex.test(id)) return null

        return {
          code: transformCode(code),
          map: null,
        }
      },
    },
  }
}
@rolldown/pluginutils exports some utilities for hook filters like exactRegex and prefixRegex. These are also re-exported from rolldown/filter for convenience.

Output Bundle Metadata

During build, Vite augments Rolldown’s build output objects with a Vite-specific viteMetadata field. This is available through:
  • RenderedChunk (for example in renderChunk and augmentChunkHash)
  • OutputChunk and OutputAsset (for example in generateBundle and writeBundle)
viteMetadata provides:
  • viteMetadata.importedCss: Set<string>
  • viteMetadata.importedAssets: Set<string>
This is useful when writing plugins that need to inspect emitted CSS and static assets without relying on build.manifest. Example:
vite.config.ts
function outputMetadataPlugin(): Plugin {
  return {
    name: 'output-metadata-plugin',
    generateBundle(_, bundle) {
      for (const output of Object.values(bundle)) {
        const css = output.viteMetadata?.importedCss
        const assets = output.viteMetadata?.importedAssets
        if (!css?.size && !assets?.size) continue

        console.log(output.fileName, {
          css: css ? [...css] : [],
          assets: assets ? [...assets] : [],
        })
      }
    },
  }
}

Path Normalization

Vite normalizes paths while resolving ids to use POSIX separators ( / ) while preserving the volume in Windows. On the other hand, Rollup keeps resolved paths untouched by default. For Vite plugins, when comparing paths against resolved ids it is important to first normalize the paths to use POSIX separators. An equivalent normalizePath utility function is exported from the vite module.
import { normalizePath } from 'vite'

normalizePath('foo\\bar') // 'foo/bar'
normalizePath('foo/bar') // 'foo/bar'

Filtering Patterns

Vite exposes @rollup/pluginutils’s createFilter function to encourage Vite specific plugins and integrations to use the standard include/exclude filtering pattern, which is also used in Vite core itself.

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