# How can I get elasticsearch indices, dataviews, documents inside my Kibana plugin?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-get-elasticsearch-indices-dataviews-documents-inside-my-kibana-plugin/324901
**Category:** Kibana
**Tags:** kibana-plugin-development
**Created:** [February 7, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-get-elasticsearch-indices-dataviews-documents-inside-my-kibana-plugin/324901 "2023-02-07T13:11:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sheereen](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sheereen)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2023, 1:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-get-elasticsearch-indices-dataviews-documents-inside-my-kibana-plugin/324901/1 "2023-02-07T13:11:17Z")
Hi,
I an creating an external plugin in Kibana 8.5.3.
How can I get data/docs/indices/dataviews/... from my elasticsearch instance within my plugin?
Thanks
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### Author:  [@cheiligers](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/cheiligers)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-get-elasticsearch-indices-dataviews-documents-inside-my-kibana-plugin/324901/2 "2023-02-10T19:45:10Z")
Hi Sheereen, if you have elasticsearch data located in the `.data` folder already, then you should be able to view that using elasticsearch API request from the [Console app (dev tools)](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/8.5/console-kibana.html#console-kibana) in kibana's main application.
If you then want to [build on top](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/8.5/development-plugin-resources.html#development-plugin-resources) of that data, which it seems like you do, then you can use the elasticsearch service from the context in your [plugin's setup and start contracts](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/8.5/kibana-platform-plugin-api.html#plugin-lifecycles).
The docs for the Core APIs cover how to use them: [Kibana Core API | Kibana Guide [8.5] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/8.5/kibana-platform-api.html) and the suggested [patterns](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/8.5/patterns.html#scoped-services) to follow are discussed in these docs.
To use services from another kibana plugins (like dataviews for example), there's a great post that explains what approach to take and some examples you can look at [here](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-kibana-api-in-plugin-development/291131/2)
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-get-elasticsearch-indices-dataviews-documents-inside-my-kibana-plugin/324901/3 "2023-03-10T19:45:30Z")
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