diff --git a/.golangci.yaml b/.golangci.yaml
index 638b3e696..c1bbd9324 100644
--- a/.golangci.yaml
+++ b/.golangci.yaml
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ linters:
     - misspell
     - nakedret
     - nolintlint
-#    - prealloc
     - rowserrcheck
     - scopelint
     - staticcheck
@@ -55,5 +54,6 @@ linters:
 #    - lll         # without a way to specify per-line exception cases, this is not usable
 #    - maligned    # this is an excellent linter, but tricky to optimize and we are not sensitive to memory layout optimizations
 #    - nestif
+#    - prealloc    # this unnecessarily requires preallocations for slices
 #    - testpackage
 #    - wsl
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/syft/cataloger/catalog.go b/syft/cataloger/catalog.go
index 4e4e95942..14419732c 100644
--- a/syft/cataloger/catalog.go
+++ b/syft/cataloger/catalog.go
@@ -12,27 +12,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/wagoodman/go-progress"
 )
 
-// Monitor provides progress-related data for observing the progress of a Catalog() call (published on the event bus).
-type Monitor struct {
-	FilesProcessed     progress.Monitorable // the number of files selected and contents analyzed from all registered catalogers
-	PackagesDiscovered progress.Monitorable // the number of packages discovered from all registered catalogers
-}
-
-// newMonitor creates a new Monitor object and publishes the object on the bus as a CatalogerStarted event.
-func newMonitor() (*progress.Manual, *progress.Manual) {
-	filesProcessed := progress.Manual{}
-	packagesDiscovered := progress.Manual{}
-
-	bus.Publish(partybus.Event{
-		Type: event.CatalogerStarted,
-		Value: Monitor{
-			FilesProcessed:     progress.Monitorable(&filesProcessed),
-			PackagesDiscovered: progress.Monitorable(&packagesDiscovered),
-		},
-	})
-	return &filesProcessed, &packagesDiscovered
-}
-
 // Catalog a given scope (container image or filesystem) with the given catalogers, returning all discovered packages.
 // In order to efficiently retrieve contents from a underlying container image the content fetch requests are
 // done in bulk. Specifically, all files of interest are collected from each catalogers and accumulated into a single
@@ -86,3 +65,24 @@ func Catalog(resolver scope.Resolver, catalogers ...Cataloger) (*pkg.Catalog, er
 
 	return catalog, nil
 }
+
+// Monitor provides progress-related data for observing the progress of a Catalog() call (published on the event bus).
+type Monitor struct {
+	FilesProcessed     progress.Monitorable // the number of files selected and contents analyzed from all registered catalogers
+	PackagesDiscovered progress.Monitorable // the number of packages discovered from all registered catalogers
+}
+
+// newMonitor creates a new Monitor object and publishes the object on the bus as a CatalogerStarted event.
+func newMonitor() (*progress.Manual, *progress.Manual) {
+	filesProcessed := progress.Manual{}
+	packagesDiscovered := progress.Manual{}
+
+	bus.Publish(partybus.Event{
+		Type: event.CatalogerStarted,
+		Value: Monitor{
+			FilesProcessed:     progress.Monitorable(&filesProcessed),
+			PackagesDiscovered: progress.Monitorable(&packagesDiscovered),
+		},
+	})
+	return &filesProcessed, &packagesDiscovered
+}
diff --git a/syft/cataloger/cataloger.go b/syft/cataloger/cataloger.go
index 237aa6697..fb1136644 100644
--- a/syft/cataloger/cataloger.go
+++ b/syft/cataloger/cataloger.go
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ type Cataloger interface {
 	// TODO: add "IterationNeeded" error to indicate to the driver to continue with another Select/Catalog pass
 }
 
-// All returns a slice of all locally defined catalogers (defined in child packages).
-func All() []Cataloger {
+func BuiltIn() []Cataloger {
 	return []Cataloger{
 		dpkg.New(),
 		bundler.New(),
@@ -47,3 +46,8 @@ func All() []Cataloger {
 		javascript.New(),
 	}
 }
+
+// All returns a slice of all locally defined catalogers (defined in child packages).
+func All() []Cataloger {
+	return BuiltIn()
+}
diff --git a/syft/distro/identify.go b/syft/distro/identify.go
index db418a49f..2c3aa60ef 100644
--- a/syft/distro/identify.go
+++ b/syft/distro/identify.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ type parseEntry struct {
 	fn   parseFunc
 }
 
+// nolint: funlen
 // Identify parses distro-specific files to determine distro metadata like version and release.
 func Identify(resolver scope.Resolver) Distro {
 	distro := NewUnknownDistro()
diff --git a/syft/plugin/collection.go b/syft/plugin/collection.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9d96c6070
--- /dev/null
+++ b/syft/plugin/collection.go
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+package plugin
+
+// repository
+type Collection struct {
+	byType map[Type]Plugin
+	byName map[string]Plugin
+}
diff --git a/syft/plugin/config.go b/syft/plugin/config.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6969c99f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/syft/plugin/config.go
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+package plugin
+
+type Config struct {
+	Name    string
+	Type    Type
+	Command string
+	Args    []string
+	Env     []string
+	//Sha256  []byte
+}
diff --git a/syft/plugin/grpc/cataloger_server.go b/syft/plugin/grpc/cataloger_server.go
index b568307a9..7da492e48 100644
--- a/syft/plugin/grpc/cataloger_server.go
+++ b/syft/plugin/grpc/cataloger_server.go
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ func (s *CatalogerServer) Catalog(ctx context.Context, req *proto.CatalogRequest
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	var results []proto.Package
+	var results []*proto.Package
 	for _, p := range packages {
 		var sources []*proto.FileReference
 		for _, s := range p.Source {
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ func (s *CatalogerServer) Catalog(ctx context.Context, req *proto.CatalogRequest
 		}
 
 		// TODO: this is potentially brittle
-		results = append(results, proto.Package{
+		results = append(results, &proto.Package{
 			Name:     p.Name,
 			Version:  p.Version,
 			FoundBy:  p.FoundBy,
@@ -94,6 +94,6 @@ func (s *CatalogerServer) Catalog(ctx context.Context, req *proto.CatalogRequest
 	}
 
 	return &proto.CatalogResponse{
-		Package: nil,
+		Package: results,
 	}, nil
 }
diff --git a/syft/plugin/plugin.go b/syft/plugin/plugin.go
index 12cdd0745..5e56febc0 100644
--- a/syft/plugin/plugin.go
+++ b/syft/plugin/plugin.go
@@ -13,18 +13,9 @@ var plugins = map[int]plugin.PluginSet{
 	},
 }
 
-type Config struct {
-	Name    string
-	Type    Type
-	Command string
-	Args    []string
-	Env     []string
-	//Sha256  []byte
-}
-
 type Plugin struct {
 	Config       Config
-	clientConfig *plugin.ClientConfig
+	clientConfig plugin.ClientConfig
 	client       *plugin.Client
 }
 
@@ -37,7 +28,7 @@ func NewPlugin(config Config) Plugin {
 	//	Hash:     sha256.New(),
 	//}
 
-	clientConfig := &plugin.ClientConfig{
+	clientConfig := plugin.ClientConfig{
 		HandshakeConfig:  config.Type.HandshakeConfig(),
 		VersionedPlugins: plugins,
 		//SecureConfig:     secureConfig,
@@ -59,7 +50,7 @@ func (p Plugin) Start() (interface{}, error) {
 	}
 
 	// start the plugin in a sub process
-	p.client = plugin.NewClient(p.clientConfig)
+	p.client = plugin.NewClient(&p.clientConfig)
 
 	// connect to the sub process via RPC
 	rpcClient, err := p.client.Client()