Full Example

This walks through two plugins — a provider and a consumer — to show how everything fits together in practice.

PluginA — The Provider

PluginA exposes a simple counter API and registers itself under "athar-adv/PluginA".

-- PluginA/init.server.lua
local UniPlugin = require(path.to.UniPlugin)(plugin)

local count = 0

UniPlugin:setApi("counter", {
    increment = function() count += 1 end,
    decrement = function() count -= 1 end,
    get = function() return count end,
})

UniPlugin:setApi("logger", {
    log = function(msg) print(`[PluginA] {msg}`) end,
})

UniPlugin:exportAs("athar-adv/PluginA")

UniPlugin:onClose(function()
    print("PluginA shutting down")
end)

PluginB — The Consumer

PluginB waits for PluginA, uses its APIs, and cleans up properly when either plugin unloads.

-- PluginB/init.server.lua
local UniPlugin = require(path.to.UniPlugin)(plugin)

local toolbar = plugin:CreateToolbar("Counter Plugin")
local incrementBtn = toolbar:CreateButton("Increment", "Add 1 to counter", "")
local decrementBtn = toolbar:CreateButton("Decrement", "Subtract 1 from counter", "")

UniPlugin:withImports({"athar-adv/PluginA"}, function(plugins, onImportClosed)
    local pluginA = plugins()

    local counter = pluginA:getApi("counter")
    local logger = pluginA:getApi("logger")

    local connections = {
        incrementBtn.Click:Connect(function()
            counter.increment()
            logger.log(`Count is now {counter.get()}`)
        end),
        decrementBtn.Click:Connect(function()
            counter.decrement()
            logger.log(`Count is now {counter.get()}`)
        end),
    }

    onImportClosed(function()
        for _, c in connections do
            c:Disconnect()
        end
        logger.log("PluginB disconnected from PluginA")
    end)
end)

UniPlugin:onClose(function()
    toolbar:Destroy()
end)

What Happens at Runtime

1. Both plugins load. Load order doesn't matter — withImports waits.
2. Once PluginA calls exportAs, PluginB's handler fires immediately.
3. Clicking the buttons calls into PluginA's counter API.
4. If PluginA is reloaded, onImportClosed fires, connections are cleaned up, and withImports starts waiting again automatically.
5. When PluginB unloads, the toolbar is destroyed via onClose.