# Developing your own plugins and scripts

## Plugins

Audacity supports the following formats:

* **Nyquist** (Lisp or SAL)\
  Audacity's built-in scripting format. Allows for easy generation of UI elements and already is tuned to Audacity's needs. Note that this plugin format is not supported as realtime effects.\
  Documentation: [Creating your own Nyquist Plugins](/contributing/developing-your-own-plugins-and-scripts/creating-your-own-nyquist-plugins.md) 
* **VST3** (C++)\
  The industry standard for plugins. Widely supported across Audacity, Musescore and most DAWs. \
  Documentation: <https://steinbergmedia.github.io/vst3_doc/vstsdk/index.html>&#x20;
* **LV2** (C, C++, other C-compatible languages)\
  The Linux plugin standard. Widely supported across open source software.\
  Documentation: <https://lv2plug.in/book/>
* **Vamp** (C++, Python)\
  An easy-to-develop-for framework for audio analyzers.\
  Documentation: <https://www.vamp-plugins.org/develop.html>

Additionally, LADSPA, VST2.4 and Audio Units are supported. LADSPA and VST2.4 are the predecessor to LV2 and VST3, respectively, and thus fairly outdated. Audio Units are only available on macOS.&#x20;

Further, Audacity has modules, which allow extending Audacity beyond just editing audio. It is somewhat experimental and not yet documented.

## Scripts

Audacity supports the following scripting formats:&#x20;

* **mod-script-pipe** (Python, Perl) \
  A module that exposes a named pipe to which commands can be sent. \
  Documentation: <https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/scripting.html>
* **Macros**\
  You can use Audacity's macros feature to chain effects and actions together. This can be exported as a file.\
  Documentation: <https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/macros.html>

If you have found a macro or script which you find universally applicable, you can share it in the scripts section.


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