---
title: Plugin tooling
description: We recommend that you kick-start your plugin by generating it with the Kibana Plugin Generator. Run the following in the Kibana repo, and you will be...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/kibana/tree/main/extend/tutorials/plugin-tooling
products:
  - Kibana
---

# Plugin tooling
### Automatic plugin generator

We recommend that you kick-start your plugin by generating it with the [Kibana Plugin Generator](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/tree/master/packages/kbn-plugin-generator). Run the following in the Kibana repo, and you will be asked a couple of questions, see some progress bars, and have a freshly generated plugin ready for you to play with in Kibana's `plugins` folder.
```shell
node scripts/generate_plugin
```

Pass `--name <plugin_name>` with `-y` to generate non-interactively using the defaults.

### Plugin location

External plugins live in a `plugins/` directory at the root of your Kibana checkout, for example:
```shell
.
└── kibana
    └── plugins
        ├── foo-plugin
        └── bar-plugin
```

The `plugins/` directory is gitignored, so your plugin is not tracked alongside the Kibana sources. Kibana discovers external plugins by scanning this directory at startup and reading each plugin's `kibana.json` manifest, so you do **not** need to run `yarn kbn bootstrap` after dropping in a new plugin or editing its manifest.
<note>
  External plugins use a flat `kibana.json` manifest. This differs from the nested `kibana.jsonc` manifest used by in-repo Kibana plugins — see [Anatomy of a plugin](/elastic/kibana/tree/main/extend/key-concepts/platform-architecture/anatomy-of-a-plugin#kibana-jsonc) for the in-repo format.
</note>


## Build plugin distributable

<warning>
  Kibana distributable is not shipped with `@kbn/optimizer` anymore. You need to pre-build your plugin for use in production.
</warning>

You can leverage [@kbn/plugin-helpers](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/blob/master/packages/kbn-plugin-helpers) to build a distributable archive for your plugin. The package transpiles the plugin code, adds polyfills, and links necessary js modules in the runtime. You don’t need to install the `plugin-helpers` dependency. If you created the plugin using `node scripts/generate_plugin` script, `package.json` is already pre-configured. To build your plugin run within your plugin folder:
```shell
yarn build
```

It will output a`zip` archive in `kibana/plugins/my_plugin_name/build/` folder.

## Install a plugin from archive

See [How to install a plugin](/elastic/kibana/tree/main/reference/kibana-plugins#install-plugin).

## Run Kibana with your plugin in dev mode

External plugins use a **two-terminal workflow** in development. Unlike in-repo plugins, their browser bundles are not built by the Kibana optimizer at startup, so you drive the build yourself from inside the plugin directory.
In the first terminal, build and watch the browser bundle from the plugin root:
```shell
cd plugins/my_plugin_name
yarn dev --watch
```

In a second terminal, run `yarn start` from the Kibana root. Confirm Kibana discovered your plugin by looking for it in the startup logs:
```shell
[INFO ][plugins-system.standard] Setting up […] plugins: […, myPluginName, …]
```