---
description: |
  Install external Packer plugins that extend Packer functionality.
page_title: Install Plugins
---

# Installing Plugins

Packer plugins are separate, standalone applications that perform tasks during each build.

You do not need to install the builder, provisioner, or
post-processor components that ship with the Packer binary. Packer automatically knows how to find and launch these built-in plugins.

This page explains how to install custom external plugins. Refer to [External Plugins](/packer/plugins) for a list of available plugins and their documentation.

## Installation Guides

Choose the tab that corresponds to the type of plugin you want to install. If you are not sure, check the plugin's name.
- Multi-component plugin names have the prefix `packer-plugin-`.
- Single-component plugin names have a prefix containing the component type, like `packer-provisioner-` or `packer-builder`.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="Packer init (recommended from Packer v1.7.0)">

~> **Note**: Only _multi-component plugin binaries_ -- that is plugins named
packer-plugin-\*, like the `packer-plugin-amazon` -- are expected to work with
Packer init. The legacy `builder`, `post-processor` and `provisioner` plugin
types will keep on being detected but Packer cannot install them automatically.
If a plugin you use has not been upgraded to use the multi-component plugin
architecture, contact your maintainer to request an upgrade.

## Create a required_plugins block

1. Add a
   [`required_plugins`](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/blocks/packer#specifying-plugin-requirements)
   block to your [packer block](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/blocks/packer). Each block will tell Packer what version(s) of a
   particular plugin can be installed. Make sure to set a valid [version
   constraint string](/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/blocks/packer#version-constraints).

Here is an example `required_plugins` block:

```hcl
packer {
  required_plugins {
    myawesomecloud = {
      version = ">= 2.7.0"
      source = "github.com/azr/myawesomecloud"
    }
    happycloud = {
      version = ">= 1.1.3"
      source = "github.com/azr/happycloud"
    }
  }
}
```

2. Run [`packer init`](/packer/docs/commands/init) from your project directory (the
   directory containing your Packer templates) to install all missing plugin
   binaries. Given the above example, Packer will try to look for a GitHub
   repository owned by user or organization `azr` named
   `packer-plugin-myawesomecloud` and `packer-plugin-happycloud`.

## Names and Addresses

Each plugin has two identifiers:

- A `source` address, which is only necessary when requiring a plugin outside the HashiCorp domain.
- A unique **local name**, which is used everywhere else in a Packer
  configuration.

## Local Names

Local names allow you to access the components of a plugin and must be unique
per configuration.

This is best explained using an example. In the above `required_plugins` block,
we declared the local name "myawesomecloud" for the plugin `azr/myawesomecloud`.
If the "myawesomecloud" plugin contains both an "ebs" builder and an "import"
post-processor, then the builder will be accessed in a source block by using:

```hcl
source "myawesomecloud-ebs" "example" {
  // builder configuration...
}
```

similarly, the import post-processor would be accessed by declaring the
post-processor block:

```hcl
post-processor "myawesomecloud-import" {
  // post-processor configuration...
}
```

If we change the required_plugins block to use a different local name "foo":

```hcl
  required_plugins {
    foo = {
      version = ">= 2.7.0"
      source = "github.com/azr/myawesomecloud"
    }
  }
```

Then we'd instead access that builder using the source:

```hcl
source "foo-ebs" "example" {
  // builder configuration...
}
```

## Source Addresses

A plugin's source address is its global identifier. It also tells Packer where
to download it.

Source addresses consist of three parts delimited by slashes (`/`), as
follows:

`<HOSTNAME>/<NAMESPACE>/<TYPE>`

- **Hostname:** The hostname of the location/service that
  distributes the plugin. Currently, the only valid "hostname" is github.com,
  but we plan to eventually support plugins downloaded from other domains.

- **Namespace:** An organizational namespace within the specified host.
  This often is the organization that publishes the plugin.

- **Type:** A short name for the platform or system the plugin manages. The
  type is usually the plugin's preferred local name.

For example, the fictional `myawesomecloud` plugin could belong to the
`hashicorp` namespace on `github.com`, so its `source` could be
`github.com/hashicorp/myawesomecloud`,
Note: the actual _repository_ that myawesomecloud comes from must always have
the name format `github.com/hashicorp/packer-plugin-myawesomecloud`, but the
`required_plugins` block omits the redundant `packer-plugin-` repository prefix
for brevity.

The source address with all three components given explicitly is called the
plugin's _fully-qualified address_. You will see fully-qualified address in
various outputs, like error messages.

## Plugin location

@include "plugins/plugin-location.mdx"

## Implicit Github urls

Using the following example :

```hcl
    required_plugins {
      happycloud = {
        version = ">= 2.7.0"
        source = "github.com/azr/happycloud"
      }
    }
```

The plugin getter will look for plugins located at:

- github.com/azr/packer-plugin-happycloud

Packer will error if you set the `packer-plugin-` prefix in a `source`. This
will avoid conflicting with other plugins for other tools, like Terraform.

</Tab>
<Tab heading="manually (multi-component plugin)">

-> The [`packer plugins`](/packer/docs/commands/plugins) command allows to install plugins without going through
`init`. For manual installation of plugin binaries, without the `packer plugins` command, please continue reading.

The easiest way to manually install a plugin is to name it correctly, then place
it in the proper directory. To name a plugin correctly, make sure the binary is
named `packer-plugin-NAME`. For example, `packer-plugin-amazon` for a "plugin"
binary named "amazon". This binary will make one or more components available to
use. Valid types for plugins are down this page.

Once the plugin is named properly, Packer automatically discovers plugins in
the following directories in the given order. If a conflicting plugin is found
later, it will take precedence over one found earlier.

1.  The directory where `packer` is, or the executable directory.

2.  The `$HOME/.packer.d/plugins` directory, if `$HOME` is defined (Unix)

3.  The `%APPDATA%/packer.d/plugins` if `%APPDATA%` is defined (Windows)

4.  The `%USERPROFILE%/packer.d/plugins` if `%USERPROFILE%` is defined
    (Windows)

5.  The current working directory.

6.  The directory defined in the env var `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH`. There can be more
    than one directory defined; for example, `~/custom-dir-1:~/custom-dir-2`.
    Separate directories in the PATH string using a colon (`:`) on POSIX systems and
    a semicolon (`;`) on Windows systems. The above example path would be able to
    find a provisioner named `packer-provisioner-foo` in either
    `~/custom-dir-1/packer-provisioner-foo` or
    `~/custom-dir-2/packer-provisioner-foo`.

The valid types for plugins are:

- `plugin` - A plugin binary that can contain one or more of each Packer component
  type.

- `builder` - Plugins responsible for building images for a specific
  platform.

- `post-processor` - A post-processor responsible for taking an artifact from
  a builder and turning it into something else.

- `provisioner` - A provisioner to install software on images created by a
  builder.

</Tab>
<Tab heading="manually (single-component plugin)">

The easiest way to manually install a plugin is to name it correctly, then place
it in the proper directory. To name a plugin correctly, make sure the binary is
named `packer-COMPONENT-NAME`. For example, `packer-provisioner-comment` for a "plugin"
binary named "comment". This binary will make a single provisioner named `comment` available to
use. Valid types for plugins are down this page.

Once the plugin is named properly, Packer automatically discovers plugins in
the following directories in the given order. If a conflicting plugin is found
later, it will take precedence over one found earlier.

1.  The directory where `packer` is, or the executable directory.

2.  The `$HOME/.packer.d/plugins` directory, if `$HOME` is defined (Unix)

3.  The `%APPDATA%/packer.d/plugins` if `%APPDATA%` is defined (Windows)

4.  The `%USERPROFILE%/packer.d/plugins` if `%USERPROFILE%` is defined
    (Windows)

5.  The current working directory.

6.  The directory defined in the env var `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH`. There can be more
    than one directory defined; for example, `~/custom-dir-1:~/custom-dir-2`.
    Separate directories in the PATH string using a colon (`:`) on POSIX systems and
    a semicolon (`;`) on Windows systems. The above example path would be able to
    find a provisioner named `packer-provisioner-foo` in either
    `~/custom-dir-1/packer-provisioner-foo` or
    `~/custom-dir-2/packer-provisioner-foo`.

The valid types for plugins are:

- `plugin` - A plugin binary that can contain one or more of each Packer component
  type.

- `builder` - Plugins responsible for building images for a specific
  platform.

- `post-processor` - A post-processor responsible for taking an artifact from
  a builder and turning it into something else.

- `provisioner` - A provisioner to install software on images created by a
  builder.

</Tab>
</Tabs>