Plugins
For information on audio plugins, see VST and VSTi .
Overview
A plugin is a small piece of software that adds extra functionality to MuseScore Studio. A plugin needs to be enabled first , and then executed by using the Plugins menu . Some plugins come pre-installed , and are disabled by default. There are also plugins created and shared by other musicians, anyone can download and use them .
Managing plugins
Enabling and disabling plugins
Go to Home -> Plugins (or Plugins -> Manage plugins...).
Select a plugin and click Enable or Disable.
Installing a new plugin
Warning: Plugins can potentially contain bad or malicious code, which compromise the machine and damage the scores. All plugins shared on musescore.org's plugin repository are unvetted. No warranty of any kind is provided. Users should download from a trusted author or double-check the code themselves. Seek advice on the Plugins forum .
Search for available plugins at, for example:
musescore.org/plugins (musescore.org -> Download -> Plugins)
Make sure it is compatible with your version of MuseScore (3.x or 4.x).
Download the file:
For .qml files hosted on musescore.org, sometimes web browsers open it as plain text and refuses to download it as file. In that case, right-click on the link and select Save link as...
For github.com unpackaged code, download the project as a zip file by clicking Code -> Download ZIP.
For github.com packaged releases, click on an appropriate item under Assets.
If the download is a .zip file, extract it using archive extraction software.
Move the files to MuseScore's plugins folder, configurable in Preferences -> Folders. The default directories are:
Windows:
C:\Users\[Your User Name]\Documents\MuseScore4\Plugins\macOS:
~/Documents/MuseScore4/Plugins/
Updating an existing plugin
Updating works the same way as installing – just remember to remove the files from the previous version to avoid duplicate plugins.
Running a plugin
Open a score (or go back to the Score tab).
Select Plugins in the menu and find and select the plugin name in the menu.
To assign a keyboard shortcut to a plugin:
Go to Home -> Plugins (or Plugins -> Manage plugins...).
Select a plugin.
Choose Edit shortcut.
Define a keyboard shortcut for the action that appears in the Preferences window.
Pre-installed plugins
See the code for these plugins on Github .
Color Notes
Courtesy Accidentals
Lilypond Lyrics
Mirror Intervals
Note Names
Retrograde
Tuning and temperaments
Create a plugin
Visit the Developers' Handbook Plugins for 3.x chapter for fundamentals, and the Plugins for 4.x chapter for info on the new parameters and porting a MuseScore 3 plugin to MuseScore Studio 4.
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