Install Specific Plugins for a Lightweight Kestra Build

Install a selection of Kestra plugins in the open-source version.

Pick and choose Kestra plugins to create lightweight builds and achieve a faster startup. This guide explains how to:

• Install specific plugins when using the -no-plugins Docker image
• Understand plugin versioning across Open Source and Enterprise
• Automate plugin installation using Docker Compose
• Link to plugin documentation and versioning support

See also: Versioned Plugins in Kestra Enterprise.

To download plugins for a standalone worker or local development environment, use kestractl plugins download.

Plugin basics in Kestra Open Source

Kestra plugins are distributed as individual JAR files and loaded at runtime. Plugins are not embedded by default in -no-plugins Docker images. You can:

• Download specific plugin JARs manually or via kestra plugins install.
• Mount them into /app/plugins/ in your Docker Compose setup.

Install plugins via kestra plugins install

You can install any plugin using:

kestra plugins install io.kestra.plugin:plugin-dbt:LATEST

This will download the plugin JAR from Maven Central into /app/plugins. Just replace plugin-dbt with whichever plugin you’d like to download (e.g., plugin-script-python, plugin-aws, etc.)

You can run this inside a container (interactively or as part of Dockerfile) to build custom plugin bundles.

Automate plugin selection with Docker Compose

If you’re using the kestra/kestra:*-no-plugins image and want to add only selected plugins:

Option 1: Use kestra plugins install inside the container

services:
  kestra:
    image: kestra/kestra:latest-no-plugins
    entrypoint: /bin/sh -c "
      kestra plugins install io.kestra.plugin:plugin-dbt:LATEST && \
      kestra plugins install io.kestra.plugin:plugin-scripts:LATEST && \
      kestra server standalone"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./storage:/app/storage

Option 2: Preload plugin JARs locally

You can copy only the JARs you need from a full Kestra image:

docker run --rm -d --name kestra-temp kestra/kestra:latest
docker cp kestra-temp:/app/plugins/. ./local-plugins
docker rm -f kestra-temp

Then remove unwanted plugins:

rm ./local-plugins/*unwanted-plugin*.jar

And mount your plugin folder:

volumes:
  - ./local-plugins:/app/plugins

You may also use a scripted alias to automate this process. Below is an example for reference:

alias dl="rm -rf ./jar-plugins/* && docker run -d kestra/kestra:develop server local \
| xargs -I {} sh -c 'docker cp {}:/app/plugins ./jar-plugins && docker rm -f {}'"

Plugin versioning in Enterprise

In Kestra Open Source, plugins must be installed at the latest compatible version. In Kestra Enterprise, you can:

• Pin specific plugin versions
• Upload custom plugin binaries per tenant
• Enable version-aware workflows

Learn more about versioned plugins in Enterprise: Versioned Plugins

Best practices