# What are the possibilities of a Kibana plugin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Kibana\ **Tags:** kibana-plugin-development\ **Created:** [October 22, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445 "2021-10-22T14:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joel\_Hansell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/joel_hansell/32/95961_2.png) [@Joel\_Hansell](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Joel_Hansell)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/1 "2021-10-22T14:31:35Z")
Hi, The context is Kibana 7.10.1 but I imagine the answer would be quite generic. I have run through a lot of the plugin developer docs but I'm not seeing the kind of overview docs I'm looking for, so please bear with me if I ask a stupid question. I understand that a new Kibana plugin will normally take the form of a new "app" on the left hand side of the gui, next to Discover, Visualize etc. I also understand that I could re-use a lot of existing components, like a search bar or similar. However, I wonder if it's possible to modify the standard apps like Discover using a plugin. Concretely, what I'd like to do is to make a change in the search experience, where I add a new Operator to the filter dropdown in Discover: ![operators](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/3/2/32883c435a7f628c71f4a97e079306d93ed0b3ff.png) Then I am guessing the plugin would have to generate the corresponding Query DSL to send to Elasticsearch. Alternatively, if it's not possible to modify the existing apps, then I could make a new "app" and pull in all the relevant components from Discover and put them together into a good search experience, but that seems like a lot more work. ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_Reese](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nathan_reese/32/84829_2.png) [@Nathan\_Reese](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nathan_Reese)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/2 "2021-10-22T14:39:57Z")
There is no filter operator registry, so there is no way for a plugin to add new filter operators. However, this will be changing in future releases: [create filter operator registry](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/pull/111897) ---
**Author:** ![Joel\_Hansell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/joel_hansell/32/95961_2.png) [@Joel\_Hansell](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Joel_Hansell)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 9:42am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/3 "2021-10-25T09:42:42Z")
Thanks for that, @Nathan_Reese! Discouraging as that is, we will be able to plan to do this in the future, then, after an upgrade to 8.10. I assume it that the filter registry will be accessible to all plugins, not only to Maps. @Anyone, how about the other question: Can I write a plugin that modifies the layout or behavior of an existing app like Discover? ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_Reese](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nathan_reese/32/84829_2.png) [@Nathan\_Reese](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nathan_Reese)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/4 "2021-10-25T14:24:34Z")
> [@Joel\_Hansell](#): > > Alternatively, if it's not possible to modify the existing apps, then I could make a new "app" and pull in all the relevant components from Discover and put them together into a good search experience, but that seems like a lot more work. Instead of trying to write a new plugin to overcome Discover short comings, how about [opening an issue](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=Feature_request.md) describing your use case and Discover enhancement. That way, maybe any short comings can be addressed in Discover for all users. ---
**Author:** ![Joel\_Hansell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/joel_hansell/32/95961_2.png) [@Joel\_Hansell](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Joel_Hansell)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/5 "2021-11-05T12:35:29Z")
It's not a bad suggestion, but let's assume I have a very narrow usecase that my particular analysts need, but I think very few others are interested in. Anyway, the more important question, can a plugin modify the existing app like Discover? ---
**Author:** ![Nathan\_Reese](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/nathan_reese/32/84829_2.png) [@Nathan\_Reese](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Nathan_Reese)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/6 "2021-11-05T12:56:55Z")
It is not possible to write a plugin that modifies an existing app unless that app has exposed some way to to be modified like a registry. ---
**Author:** ![Joel\_Hansell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/joel_hansell/32/95961_2.png) [@Joel\_Hansell](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Joel_Hansell)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/7 "2021-11-10T14:11:15Z")
Thank you so much for your patience in answering these newbie questions! I think I know how to proceed with this now. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 2:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-are-the-possibilities-of-a-kibana-plugin/287445/8 "2021-12-08T14:12:01Z")
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