This script pulls down the VCV Rack community repo, finds source urls, pulls down source repos, and builds plugins.

community-builds-from-source.sh

#!/bin/bash

#################################################################################################################################
# community-builds-from-source.sh
#     by Jeremy Wentworth
#
# This script pulls down the VCV Rack community repo, finds source urls, pulls down source repos, and builds plugins.
#
# This script requires:
#     git - https://git-scm.com/
#     VCV Rack dev env - https://github.com/VCVRack/Rack#setting-up-your-development-environment
#
# Copy this script into: 
#    Rack/plugins
#
# Run this in Rack/plugins: 
#    . community-builds-from-source.sh
#
#################################################################################################################################

# check for the community repo locally
if [ -d "community" ]; then 
	pushd community
		# discard any changes
		git reset HEAD --hard 

		# update the community repo if it exists
		git pull
	popd
else
	# community repo does not exist so pull it down
	git clone https://github.com/VCVRack/community
fi

# loop through the json in the community repo
for gitPlugin in $(cat community/plugins/*.json | grep \"source\" | awk -F'"' '{print $4}')
do

	# get the folder name and see if we already haave it locally
	pluginDirName=$(echo $gitPlugin | awk -F'/' '{print $5}')
	if [ -d "$pluginDirName" ]; then 
		echo "$pluginDirName exists"
	else
		echo "$pluginDirName does not exists yet"
		userNameUrlPart=$(echo $gitPlugin | awk -F'/' '{print $4}')
		git clone $gitPlugin #NOTE: not all plugins are on github, sonus is on gitlab
	fi
	
	# change to the repo dir
	pushd $pluginDirName
		
		# Some devs don't have a .gitignore so you can't pull until you do something with the changed files.
		git reset HEAD --hard #discards any changes - we could do `git stash` here instead

		# pull down the latest code
		git pull

		# try to update submodules if there are any
		git submodule update --init --recursive

		# clean old builds (might not be needed but can prevent issues)
		make clean 

		# finally, build the plugin
		make

	# go back to the last dir
	popd

done

Sure@Phal-anx -- my understanding of how this all works is evolving.