How to inline early in a GHC plugin?

I'm implementing a GHC plugin that installs a `BuiltInRule` that does the work, and I'd like to learn how to inline more flexibly. Given an identifier `v`, I'm using `maybeUnfoldingTemplate (realIdUnfolding v)` to get a `Maybe CoreExpr`. Sometimes this recipe yields `Nothing` until a later compiler phase. Meanwhile, I guess my variable `v` has been replaced by one with inlining info. First, am I understanding this mechanism correctly? A GHC source pointer to how inlining is made available would help me. Second, can I access the inlining info before it's made available to the rest of the simplifier? Thanks, - Conal