---
title: Contribute to Kibana
description: Kibana is a pluggable platform for searching, visualizing, and analyzing data in Elasticsearch. Most of the UI you see in Kibana is built inside a plugin,...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana
products:
  - Kibana
---

# Contribute to Kibana
[Kibana](https://www.elastic.co/what-is/kibana) is a pluggable platform for searching, visualizing, and analyzing data in Elasticsearch. Most of the UI you see in Kibana is built inside a plugin, and the platform is designed to be extended — both by plugins in the repository and by plugins developed outside it.
This documentation is organized into five sections. Pick the one that matches what you need.
- **[Getting started](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/getting-started)** — set up a local environment, run Kibana, and build your first "Hello World" plugin.
- **[Key concepts](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/key-concepts)** — the mental models and architecture you need to build on the platform: plugins vs. packages vs. core, the lifecycle, saved objects, security, performance, embeddables, and more.
- **[Tutorials](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/tutorials)** — task-focused, hands-on walkthroughs for common plugin development tasks (registering routes, configuring your plugin, accessing data, adding logging, and so on).
- **[Testing](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/testing)** — the testing pyramid for Kibana plugins: Jest unit/integration, Scout (Playwright) for UI and API, and legacy FTR.
- **[Contributing](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/contributing)** — how to work inside the Kibana repository: standards, pull requests, CI, linting, debugging, and build.


## Where to start

- **New to Kibana development?** Start with [Getting started](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/getting-started), then the [Hello World plugin](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/getting-started/hello-world).
- **Building on the platform from outside the repo?** See the [external plugin development guide](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/tutorials/external-plugin-development) after you've set up an environment.
- **Landing on a specific task?** Jump directly to [Tutorials](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/tutorials) and find it by category.


## Reference

- [Plugin list](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/plugin-list) — inventory of built-in plugins with short descriptions.
- [Dependency versions](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3586/extend/kibana/dependencies-versions) — version matrix for Kibana's runtime dependencies.