nu_plugin_nw_ulid

Production-grade ULID (Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifier) utilities plugin for Nushell. Generate, parse, validate & manipulate ULIDs with cryptographically secure operations, enterprise-grade security, streaming support, and seamless integration with Nushell's structured data model.

Features

• 🔒 Cryptographically Secure: Uses secure randomness for ULID generation with comprehensive security validation
• ⚡ High Performance: Optimized for bulk operations and streaming data with benchmarked performance
• 🔧 Complete ULID Support: 23 production commands for generating, parsing, validating, and manipulating ULIDs
• 🏢 Enterprise Grade: Security audit (A- rating), 90% test coverage, comprehensive testing, and quality assurance
• 🌊 Streaming Support: Memory-efficient processing of large datasets with configurable batch sizes
• 🐚 Nushell Native: Full integration with Nushell's structured data and pipeline model
• 🎯 Security First: Built-in security context detection and warnings for sensitive operations
• 🚀 Production Ready: Zero clippy warnings, memory safety, and competitive performance vs reference implementations

Installation

Via Cargo

cargo install nu_plugin_nw_ulid

From Source

git clone https://github.com/nushell-works/nu_plugin_nw_ulid.git
cd nu_plugin_nw_ulid
cargo install --path .

Register Plugin

After installation, register the plugin with Nushell:

plugin add ~/.cargo/bin/nu_plugin_nw_ulid
plugin use nw_ulid

Quick Start

# Check plugin information
ulid info

# Generate ULIDs
ulid generate                              # Generate single ULID
ulid generate --count 5                    # Generate multiple ULIDs
ulid generate --timestamp 1692000000000    # Generate with custom timestamp

# Validate and parse ULIDs
ulid validate "01AN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3"  # Validate ULID format
ulid parse "01AN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3"     # Parse into components

# Sort and inspect ULIDs
echo ["01BN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3", "01AN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3"] | ulid sort
ulid inspect "01AN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3"   # Detailed ULID analysis

# Stream processing for large datasets
echo ["01AN4Z07BY79KA1307SR9X4MV3", "invalid"] | ulid stream validate
ulid generate-stream --count 1000 --batch-size 100

# Security context checking
ulid security-advice --context "api-keys"   # Get security recommendations

Production Commands (23 Commands Available)

Core ULID Operations

• ulid generate [--count] [--timestamp] [--format] [--context] - Generate ULIDs with options
• ulid validate <ulid> - Validate ULID format and integrity
• ulid parse <ulid> - Parse ULID into timestamp and randomness components
• ulid security-advice [--context] - Get security recommendations for ULID usage

Analysis & Sorting

• ulid sort [--reverse] [--natural] - Sort data by ULID timestamp order
• ulid inspect <ulid> - Extract detailed metadata and statistics from ULIDs

Streaming Operations (High Performance)

• ulid stream <operation> [--batch-size] [--parallel] [--continue-on-error] - Stream-process large datasets
• ulid generate-stream [--count] [--batch-size] [--timestamp] - Generate continuous ULID streams

Time Operations

• ulid time now [--format] - Current timestamp in various formats
• ulid time parse <timestamp> - Parse timestamps into components
• ulid time millis [timestamp] - Convert to milliseconds (ULID format)

Encoding Operations

• ulid encode base32 <data> - Encode using Crockford Base32 (ULID standard)
• ulid decode base32 <data> [--text] - Decode Crockford Base32
• ulid encode hex <data> [--uppercase] - Hexadecimal encoding
• ulid decode hex <data> [--text] - Hexadecimal decoding

Cryptographic Operations

• ulid hash sha256 <data> - SHA-256 hashing
• ulid hash sha512 <data> - SHA-512 hashing
• ulid hash blake3 <data> [--length] - BLAKE3 hashing with variable length
• ulid hash random [--length] - Cryptographically secure random bytes

Legacy UUID Support

• ulid uuid generate - Generate UUID v4 (compatibility)
• ulid uuid validate <uuid> - Validate UUID format
• ulid uuid parse <uuid> - Parse UUID into components

Plugin Information

• ulid info - Display plugin metadata and diagnostics

Example Usage

# Plugin information
> ulid info
╭─────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ name        │ nu_plugin_nw_ulid                                                 │
│ version     │ 0.1.0                                                          │
│ description │ Professional ULID (Universally Unique Lexicographically        │
│             │ Sortable Identifier) utilities plugin for Nushell              │
│ authors     │ John Ky <newhoggy@gmail.com>                                   │
│ license     │ BSD-3-Clause                                                   │
│ repository  │ https://github.com/nushell-works/nu_plugin_nw_ulid                │
╰─────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

# Generate and work with ULIDs
> ulid generate
01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6

> ulid validate "01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6"
true

> ulid parse "01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6"
╭────────────┬────────────────────────────╮
│ ulid       │ 01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6 │
│ timestamp  │ {record 3 fields}          │
│ randomness │ {record 1 field}           │
│ valid      │ true                       │
╰────────────┴────────────────────────────╯

# Bulk operations
> ulid generate --count 3
╭───┬────────────────────────────╮
│ 0 │ 01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW7 │
│ 1 │ 01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW8 │
│ 2 │ 01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW9 │
╰───┴────────────────────────────╯

# Stream processing for large datasets
> echo ["01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6", "invalid"] | ulid stream validate
╭───┬─────────────────────────────┬───────╮
│ # │ ulid                        │ valid │
├───┼─────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 0 │ 01K2W41TWG3FKYYSK430SR8KW6  │ true  │
│ 1 │ invalid                     │ false │
╰───┴─────────────────────────────┴───────╯

What are ULIDs?

ULIDs (Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifiers) are 128-bit identifiers that are:

• Sortable: Lexicographically sortable by generation time
• Compact: 26 character string representation using Crockford Base32
• URL Safe: No special characters
• Case Insensitive: All uppercase for consistency
• Monotonic: Within the same millisecond, values are monotonically increasing

ULID Structure

01ARZ3NDEKTSV4RRFFQ69G5FAV
|----------|-------------|
  Timestamp    Randomness
   (48-bit)     (80-bit)

Performance & Security

Production Performance

Based on benchmarking against reference implementations:

• ULID Generation: ~40ns per operation (release mode)
• ULID Validation: ~12ns per operation
• Bulk Operations: Efficient batch processing with configurable sizes
• Memory Usage: Optimized allocation patterns with streaming support
• Concurrent Operations: Thread-safe with parallel processing support

Security Features

• A- Security Rating: Comprehensive security audit completed
• Cryptographic Randomness: Uses secure system entropy for ULID generation
• Context-Aware Warnings: Built-in security advice for sensitive use cases
• Input Validation: Comprehensive attack resistance testing
• Memory Safety: Rust's memory guarantees prevent buffer overflows
• Zero Information Leakage: Sanitized error messages

Enterprise Ready

• 90% Test Coverage: Comprehensive test suite with security and performance testing
• Zero Clippy Warnings: Production-quality code standards
• Cross-Platform: Supports Linux, macOS, Windows
• Streaming Support: Memory-efficient processing of large datasets
• Quality Assurance: Automated security scanning and dependency auditing

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.89.0 or later (required for Nushell 0.109.1)
• Nushell 0.109.1 or later

Building

git clone https://github.com/nushell-works/nu_plugin_nw_ulid.git
cd nu_plugin_nw_ulid
cargo build --release

Testing

cargo test
cargo clippy
cargo fmt --check

Security

cargo audit
cargo deny check

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Development Process

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes with tests
4. Run the full test suite
5. Submit a pull request

Code Standards

• All code must pass cargo clippy with no warnings
• Code must be formatted with cargo fmt
• Tests required for all new functionality
• Security scans must pass (cargo audit, cargo deny check)

Architecture

This plugin follows enterprise-grade development practices:

• Modular Design: Separate modules for each command type
• Comprehensive Testing: Unit, integration, and property-based tests
• Security First: Regular security audits and dependency scanning
• Performance Optimized: Benchmarked and optimized for common use cases
• Cross-Platform: Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows

License

Licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• ULID Specification - The ULID specification
• Nushell - The amazing shell this plugin extends
• Rust Community - For the incredible ecosystem and tooling

Documentation & Support

Documentation

• 📚 API Documentation - Complete API reference
• 🚀 Scripting Guide - Automation patterns and helpers
• 🔒 Security Audit - Comprehensive security assessment
• ⚡ Performance Report - Benchmarks and optimization details
• 🏗️ Architecture Guide - Technical design documentation

Community & Support

• 🐛 Issue Tracker - Bug reports and feature requests
• 💬 Discussions - Community discussions
• 🤝 Contributing - Contribution guidelines
• 📦 Crates.io - Package repository

Built with ❤️ for the Nushell community