---
title: Mandatory plugins
description: If you rely on some plugins, you can define mandatory plugins by adding plugin.mandatory setting to the config/elasticsearch.yml file, for example: For...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/elasticsearch/plugins/mandatory-plugins
products:
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Self-managed Elastic deployments: Generally available
---

# Mandatory plugins
If you rely on some plugins, you can define mandatory plugins by adding `plugin.mandatory` setting to the `config/elasticsearch.yml` file, for example:
```yaml
plugin.mandatory: analysis-icu,lang-js
```

For safety reasons, a node will not start if it is missing a mandatory plugin.