diff --git a/maintainers/scripts/pluginupdate.py b/maintainers/scripts/pluginupdate.py
index b24d75a6b4d0..55eda3c7d45d 100644
--- a/maintainers/scripts/pluginupdate.py
+++ b/maintainers/scripts/pluginupdate.py
@@ -311,6 +311,16 @@ def load_plugins_from_csv(config: FetchConfig, input_file: Path,) -> List[Plugin
 
     return plugins
 
+def run_nix_expr(expr):
+    with CleanEnvironment():
+        cmd = ["nix", "eval", "--extra-experimental-features",
+                "nix-command", "--impure", "--json", "--expr", expr]
+        log.debug("Running command %s", cmd)
+        out = subprocess.check_output(cmd)
+    data = json.loads(out)
+    return data
+
+
 class Editor:
     """The configuration of the update script."""
 
@@ -333,13 +343,9 @@ class Editor:
         self.deprecated = deprecated or root.joinpath("deprecated.json")
         self.cache_file = cache_file or f"{name}-plugin-cache.json"
 
-    def get_current_plugins(editor) -> List[Plugin]:
+    def get_current_plugins(self) -> List[Plugin]:
         """To fill the cache"""
-        with CleanEnvironment():
-            cmd = ["nix", "eval", "--extra-experimental-features", "nix-command", "--impure", "--json", "--expr", editor.get_plugins]
-            log.debug("Running command %s", cmd)
-            out = subprocess.check_output(cmd)
-        data = json.loads(out)
+        data = run_nix_expr(self.get_plugins)
         plugins = []
         for name, attr in data.items():
             print("get_current_plugins: name %s" % name)
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/default.nix
index cd5a1f9d6e50..c6ef409d637b 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/default.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 
 let
 
-  inherit (vimUtils.override {inherit vim;}) buildVimPluginFrom2Nix vimGenDocHook vimCommandCheckHook;
+  inherit (vimUtils.override {inherit vim;})
+    buildVimPluginFrom2Nix vimGenDocHook vimCommandCheckHook;
 
   inherit (lib) extends;
 
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ let
 
   plugins = callPackage ./generated.nix {
     inherit buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
+    inherit (vimUtils) buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix;
   };
 
   # TL;DR
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/update.py b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/update.py
index ad1c38cb375f..1214e36372a6 100755
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/update.py
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/update.py
@@ -26,19 +26,24 @@ from typing import List, Tuple
 from pathlib import Path
 
 log = logging.getLogger()
-log.addHandler(logging.StreamHandler())
+
+sh = logging.StreamHandler()
+formatter = logging.Formatter('%(name)s:%(levelname)s: %(message)s')
+sh.setFormatter(formatter)
+log.addHandler(sh)
 
 # Import plugin update library from maintainers/scripts/pluginupdate.py
 ROOT = Path(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(inspect.getfile(inspect.currentframe()))))
 # Ideally, ROOT.(parent^5) points to root of Nixpkgs official tree
 sys.path.insert(0, os.path.join(ROOT.parent.parent.parent.parent.parent, "maintainers", "scripts"))
 import pluginupdate
+from pluginupdate import run_nix_expr, PluginDesc
 
 GET_PLUGINS = f"""(with import <localpkgs> {{}};
 let
-  inherit (vimUtils.override {{inherit vim;}}) buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
+  inherit (vimUtils.override {{inherit vim;}}) buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
   generated = callPackage {ROOT}/generated.nix {{
-    inherit buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
+    inherit buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
   }};
   hasChecksum = value: lib.isAttrs value && lib.hasAttrByPath ["src" "outputHash"] value;
   getChecksum = name: value:
@@ -50,43 +55,69 @@ let
   checksums = lib.mapAttrs getChecksum generated;
 in lib.filterAttrs (n: v: v != null) checksums)"""
 
+GET_PLUGINS_LUA = """
+with import <localpkgs> {};
+lib.attrNames lua51Packages"""
+
 HEADER = (
     "# This file has been generated by ./pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/update.py. Do not edit!"
 )
 
+def isNeovimPlugin(plug: pluginupdate.Plugin) -> bool:
+    '''
+    Whether it's a neovim-only plugin
+    We can check if it's available in lua packages
+    '''
+    global luaPlugins
+    if plug.normalized_name in luaPlugins:
+        log.debug("%s is a neovim plugin", plug)
+        return True
+    return False
+
 
 class VimEditor(pluginupdate.Editor):
-    def generate_nix(self, plugins: List[Tuple[pluginupdate.PluginDesc, pluginupdate.Plugin]], outfile: str):
+    def generate_nix(self, plugins: List[Tuple[PluginDesc, pluginupdate.Plugin]], outfile: str):
         sorted_plugins = sorted(plugins, key=lambda v: v[0].name.lower())
 
         with open(outfile, "w+") as f:
             f.write(HEADER)
             f.write(textwrap.dedent("""
-                { lib, buildVimPluginFrom2Nix, fetchFromGitHub, fetchgit }:
+                { lib, buildVimPluginFrom2Nix, buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix, fetchFromGitHub, fetchgit }:
 
                 final: prev:
-                {"""
+                {
+                """
             ))
             for pdesc, plugin in sorted_plugins:
+                content = self.plugin2nix(pdesc, plugin)
+                f.write(content)
+            f.write("\n}\n")
+        print(f"updated {outfile}")
 
-                repo = pdesc.repo
-                src_nix = repo.as_nix(plugin)
-                f.write(
-                    f"""
-  {plugin.normalized_name} = buildVimPluginFrom2Nix {{
+    def plugin2nix(self, pdesc: PluginDesc, plugin: pluginupdate.Plugin) -> str:
+
+        repo = pdesc.repo
+        isNeovim = isNeovimPlugin(plugin)
+
+        content = f"  {plugin.normalized_name} = "
+        src_nix = repo.as_nix(plugin)
+        content += """{buildFn} {{
     pname = "{plugin.name}";
     version = "{plugin.version}";
     src = {src_nix};
     meta.homepage = "{repo.uri}";
   }};
-"""
-                )
-            f.write("\n}\n")
-        print(f"updated {outfile}")
-
 
+""".format(
+        buildFn="buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix" if isNeovim else "buildVimPluginFrom2Nix", plugin=plugin, src_nix=src_nix, repo=repo)
+        print(content)
+        return content
 
 def main():
+
+    global luaPlugins
+    luaPlugins = run_nix_expr(GET_PLUGINS_LUA)
+
     editor = VimEditor("vim", ROOT, GET_PLUGINS)
     parser = editor.create_parser()
     args = parser.parse_args()
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/vim-utils.nix b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/vim-utils.nix
index 5e19d33d19d1..e685e398fc2b 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/vim-utils.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/editors/vim/plugins/vim-utils.nix
@@ -535,6 +535,11 @@ rec {
     inherit lib stdenv rtpPath vim vimGenDocHook vimCommandCheckHook;
   }) buildVimPlugin buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
 
+
+  # TODO placeholder to ease working on automatic plugin detection
+  # this should be a luarocks "flat" install with appropriate vim hooks
+  buildNeovimPluginFrom2Nix = buildVimPluginFrom2Nix;
+
   # used to figure out which python dependencies etc. neovim needs
   requiredPlugins = {
     packages ? {},