The system splits responsibility across three layers. The core (`@omnigrid/core`) is a portable engine: it manages state, runs the data pipeline, computes virtualization, and owns the slot manager. The adapter (`@omnigrid/react`) renders that state with a particular UI framework, translating headless content descriptions into DOM or framework nodes. Plugins sit between the two — they receive the core's `GridApi` and can read state, transform data, subscribe to events, and mount controls — all without importing any framework code themselves.

Every plugin implements the minimal GridPlugin<T> interface:

The name is a unique identifier. The register method receives the grid API, performs setup, and returns a cleanup function called when the plugin is unregistered or the grid is destroyed. The two optional methods let a plugin contribute CSS classes or inline styles to rows — for example, the selection plugin marks selected rows with a CSS class.

Plugins are composed by instantiating them and passing the instances through the plugins prop. The grid registers each one in order, so plugins can interact with each other through shared API events. Because each base plugin is its own package, you install only what you need:

Then pass the instances to the grid:

Instantiate plugins with useMemo (or outside the render) so the same instance survives re-renders — the grid reads the plugin options at construction time and subscribes to its callbacks. See the live examples for filtering, sorting, selection, pagination, and resize.

The grid maintains a data pipeline. The raw data passed via the data prop is the starting point. Each registered data processor receives the output of the previous one, forming a chain. When any processor calls api.setData(), the pipeline re-runs and the grid re-renders. This is how base plugins work: the sorting plugin registers a processor that reorders rows, and the pagination plugin registers a processor that slices rows into pages.

Plugins can operate in two modes. In client mode the plugin transforms the data locally — filtering, sorting, or paginating the data the grid already holds. In server mode the plugin skips local transformation entirely: it calls onChange with the requested parameters (page, page size, or sort model), and the host fetches the result and feeds it back through the (page, page size, or sort model), and the host fetches the result and feeds it back through the data prop. This keeps the pipeline consistent whether data is processed locally or

OmniGrid exposes four slots where plugins — and your own code — can place UI controls around the grid: top, bottom, left, and right. Each slot is a region outside the scrollable cell area that moves with the grid but is not virtualized. A plugin mounts content via api.slots.mount(), which returns a handle whose unmount()method removes it:

Three options control placement within a slot:

• priority — ordering within the slot (lower values render first).
• position — alignment group: "start" | "center" | "end". The adapter renders each group side by side within the slot.
• id — stable identifier. Re-mounting with an existing id replaces the previous content instead of duplicating it.

Slot content is headless — the core stores an opaque value and the adapter materializes it at render time. This means a plugin never imports React, Vue, or the DOM. Five content shapes are recognized:

The pagination plugin, for example, mounts SlotNodeContent buttons (first, prev, next, last) into the bottom slot. The selection plugin mounts a checkbox column header node. All of this is framework-agnostic — the React adapter renders the same declarative nodes as real React elements without the plugins knowing it.

Because the plugin interface is tiny and headless, writing a custom plugin is straightforward. A plugin can read grid state (columns, data, viewport), transform rows via a data processor, subscribe to grid events, mount controls into slots, and expose a public API for the host to call. The example below is a text-filter plugin that demonstrates all of these capabilities:

It is registered the same way as a base plugin: