return {

  -- measure startuptime
  {
    "dstein64/vim-startuptime",
    cmd = "StartupTime",
    config = function()
      vim.g.startuptime_tries = 10
    end,
  },

  -- session management
  {
    "folke/persistence.nvim",
    event = "BufReadPre",
    opts = { options = { "buffers", "curdir", "tabpages", "winsize", "help" } },
    -- stylua: ignore
    keys = {
      { "<leader>qs", function() require("persistence").load() end, desc = "Restore Session" },
      { "<leader>ql", function() require("persistence").load({ last = true }) end, desc = "Restore Last Session" },
      { "<leader>qd", function() require("persistence").stop() end, desc = "Don't Save Current Session" },
    },
  },

  -- library used by other plugins
  "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
}