develop-cli-plugins.html.md.erb

---
title: Developing cf CLI plug-ins
owner: CLI
---


You can create and install Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface (cf CLI) plug-ins to provide custom commands. You can submit and share these plug-ins to the [CF Community repository](https://plugins.cloudfoundry.org/).


## <a id='prerequisite'></a> Prerequisite

To use plug-ins, you must use cf CLI v7 or later. For information about downloading, installing, and uninstalling cf CLI commands, see [Installing the Cloud Foundry Command Line Interface](install-go-cli.html).


## <a id='install-arch'></a> Creating a plug-in

To prepare to create a plug-in:

1. Implement the predefined plug-in interface from [plugin.go](https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/blob/master/plugin/plugin.go) in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub.

1. Clone the [Cloud Foundry CLI repository](https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli) from GitHub. To create a plug-in, you need the [basic GO plugin](https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/blob/master/plugin/plugin_examples/basic_plugin.go).


## <a id='initialize'></a> Initializing the plug-in

To initialize a plug-in:

1. From within the `main()` method of your plug-in, call:

    ```
    plugin.Start(new(MyPluginStruct))
    ```
    The `plugin.Start(...)` function requires a new reference to the `struct` that implements the defined interface.


## <a id='invoke'></a> Invoking cf CLI commands

To invoke cf CLI commands,

1. From within the `Run(...)` method of your plug-in, call:

    ```
    cliConnection.CliCommand([]args)
    ```

The `Run(...)` method receives the `cliConnection` as its first argument. The `cliConnection.CliCommand([]args)` returns the output printed by the command and an error.

The output is returned as a slice of strings. The error occurs if the call to the cf CLI command fails.

For more information, see [Plug-in API](https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/blob/master/plugin/plugin_examples/DOC.md) in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub.


## <a id='install-plugin'></a> Installing a plug-in

To install a plug-in:

1. Run:

    ```
    cf install-plugin PATH-TO-PLUGIN-BINARY
    ```
    Where `PATH-TO-PLUGIN-BINARY` is the path to your plug-in binary.

For more information about developing plug-ins, see [plugin_examples](https://github.com/cloudfoundry/cli/tree/master/plugin/plugin_examples) in the Cloud Foundry CLI repository on GitHub.