# Plugins development workflow
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/plugins-development-workflow/121872
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 28, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/plugins-development-workflow/121872 "2018-02-28T14:46:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@franck.lefebure](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/franck.lefebure)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2018, 2:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/plugins-development-workflow/121872/1 "2018-02-28T14:46:03Z")
Recently, we started to create custom plugins for ES6 and I wonder what should be a good development method.
During debugging steps, the iterative packaging/deployment of the plugin to an ES external server instance is quite slow. I would like to stay in Idea all the time.
So I'm actually trying to develop our plugins in a ES6 project checkouted in Idea.
I use the :distribution:run#start gradle task to start the server and it's fine.
To load my own custom data in the running cluster I've configured the :distribution/build.gradle task like that
```
task run(type: RunTask) {
distribution = 'zip'
dataDir = {'/path/to/my/data'}
clusterName = 'softbridge'
debug = true
}
```
Now I would like to load a plugin at startup time. For now I test with one of the bundled plugin
```
task run(type: RunTask) {
distribution = 'zip'
dataDir = {'/path/to/my/data'}
clusterName = 'softbridge'
debug = true
plugin(':plugins:ingest-attachment')
}
```
But during start, I have have the following error
`"> Task [run#copyPlugins] cannot add plugin [:plugins:ingest-attachment] with version [6.2.0-SNAPSHOT] to project's [:distribution] dependencies: the plugin is not an esplugin or es_meta_plugin"`
Its strange because the plugin gradle project actually has the esplugin gradle plugin
What is the good method ?
---
### Author:  [@franck.lefebure](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/franck.lefebure)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/plugins-development-workflow/121872/2 "2018-02-28T18:51:15Z")
Thanks to this post : [Building a plugin with Gradle and Elasticsearch 5.0](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/building-a-plugin-with-gradle-and-elasticsearch-5-0/65313/2), I'm now able to debug an ES cluster with my plugin deployed in it.
```
buildscript {
dependencies {
classpath "org.elasticsearch.gradle:build-tools:6.2.0"
}
}
apply plugin: 'elasticsearch.esplugin'
esplugin {
licenseFile rootProject.file('LICENSE.txt')
noticeFile rootProject.file('NOTICE.txt')
name 'reverse-children-agg'
version rootProject.version
description 'ElasticSearch reverse chidren aggregation plugin'
classname 'com.softbridge.elasticsearch.join.ReverseChildrenAggPlugin'
hasClientJar = true
}
run {
distribution = 'zip'
dataDir = {'/path/to/my/data'}
clusterName = 'softbridge'
debug = true
}
```
I keep curious of how I can deploy one of the shipped :plugins: when I start (with gradle:run) the Cluster from the ES core project
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/plugins-development-workflow/121872/3 "2018-03-28T18:51:33Z")
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