Install Only Selected Plugins in Kestra Open Source

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

Install only selected Plugins in Kestra Open Source

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.

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 referral:

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