just gave up and used an envvar instead

autoload.lua

@@ -1,14 +1,30 @@
 -- ~/.config/hypr/autoload.lua
 
 -- Path to search
+local hyprRoot
 local modules
 
+if os.getenv("HYPRLAND_ROOT") then
+	hyprRoot = os.getenv("HYPRLAND_ROOT")
+else
+	hyprRoot = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.config/hypr"
+end
+
 if os.getenv("MODULES_ROOT") then
 	modules = os.getenv("MODULES_ROOT")
 else
 	modules = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/.config/hypr/modules"
 end
 
+local pluginsOk, pluginsErr = pcall(dofile, hyprRoot .. "plugins.lua")
+if not pluginsOk then
+	hl.notification.create({
+		text = "autoload: " .. hyprRoot .. "plugins.lua" .. "\n" .. tostring(pluginsErr),
+		timeout = 8000,
+		icon = "warning",
+	})
+end
+
 -- Get all files in modules dir
 local p = io.popen('find -L "' .. modules .. '" -name "*.lua" -type f | sort')
 if not p then