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Plugin Manager CLI tool for Jenkins
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- Last updated
- 11/01/2026
gem-hunterPlugin Manager CLI tool for Jenkins
The plugin manager downloads plugins and their dependencies into a folder so that they can be easily imported into an instance of Jenkins. This tool replaces a previous shell script of the Jenkins Docker project and the many other implementations of plugin management that have been recreated across Jenkins. It ships with with the official Docker image and can be used as jenkins-plugin-cli. The tool also allows users to see more information about the plugins they are downloading, such as available updates and security warnings. By default, plugins will be downloaded; the user can specify not to download plugins using the --no-download option.
Download the latest jenkins-plugin-manager jar from here and run it as shown below.
java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar --war /your/path/to/jenkins.war --plugin-download-directory /your/path/to/plugins/ --plugin-file /your/path/to/plugins.txt --plugins delivery-pipeline-plugin:1.3.2 deployit-pluginAlternatively, build and run the plugin manager yourself from source:
mvn clean install
java -jar plugin-management-cli/target/jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar --war /file/path/jenkins.war --plugin-download-directory /your/path/to/plugins/ --plugin-file /file/path/plugins.txt --plugins delivery-pipeline-plugin:1.3.2 deployit-pluginIf you use a Jenkins docker image the plugin manager can be invoked inside the running container via the bundled jenkins-plugin-cli shell script:
docker cp /your/path/to/plugins.txt <container_name>:/tmp/plugins.txt docker exec -it <container_name> /bin/bash jenkins-plugin-cli --plugin-file /tmp/plugins.txt --plugins delivery-pipeline-plugin:1.3.2 deployit-plugin cp -r -p /usr/share/jenkins/ref/plugins/. /var/jenkins_home/plugins/. exit
--plugin-file or -f: (optional) Path to the plugins.txt, or plugins.yaml file, which contains a list of plugins to install. If this file does not exist, or if the file exists, but does not have a .txt or .yaml/.yml extension, then an error will be thrown.--plugin-download-directory or -d: (optional) Directory in which to install plugins. This configuration can also be made via the PLUGIN_DIR environment variable. The directory will be first deleted, then recreated. If no directory configuration is provided, the defaults are C:\ProgramData\Jenkins\Reference\Plugins if the detected operating system is Microsoft Windows, or /usr/share/jenkins/ref/plugins otherwise.--plugins or -p: (optional) List of plugins to install (see plugin format below), separated by a space.--clean-download-directory: (optional) If sets, cleans the plugin download directory before plugin installation. Otherwise the tool performs plugin download and reports compatibility issues, if any.--jenkins-version: (optional) Version of Jenkins to be used.
If not specified, the plugin manager will try to extract it from the WAR file or other sources.
The argument can be also set using the JENKINS_VERSION environment variable.--war or -w: (optional) Path to Jenkins war file. If this file does not exist, an error will be thrown. If no war file is entered, it will default to a specific location based on user's OS. In case of Windows, it will default to C:\ProgramData\Jenkins\jenkins.war and in case of OS other than Windows, it will default to /usr/share/java/jenkins.war. Plugins that are already included in the Jenkins war will only be downloaded if their required version is newer than the one included.--list or -l: (optional) Lists plugin names and versions of: installed plugins (plugins that already exist in the plugin directory), bundled plugins (non-detached plugins that exist in the war file), plugins that will be downloaded (highest required versions of the requested plugins and dependencies that are not already installed), and the effective plugin set (the highest versions of all plugins that are already installed or will be installed)--verbose: (optional) Show additional information about plugin dependencies and the download process--hide-security-warnings: (optional) Hide if any of the user specified plugins have security warnings--view-all-security-warnings: (optional) Show all plugins that have security warnings.--available-updates: (optional) Show if any requested plugins have newer versions available. If a Jenkins version-specific update center is available, the latest plugin version will be determined based on that update center's data.--output {stdout,yaml,txt}: (optional) Format to output plugin updates file in, stdout is the default.--latest {true,false}: (optional) Set to false to download the minimum required version of all dependencies.--latest-specified: (optional) (advanced) Download latest dependencies of any plugin that is requested to have the latest version. All other plugin dependency versions are determined by the update center metadata or the plugin MANIFEST.MF.--jenkins-update-center: (optional) Sets the main update center filename, which can also be set via the JENKINS_UC environment variable. If a CLI option is entered, it will override what is set in the environment variable. If not set via CLI option or environment variable, will default to https://updates.jenkins.io/update-center.actual.json--jenkins-experimental-update-center: (optional) Sets the experimental update center, which can also be set via the JENKINS_UC_EXPERIMENTAL environment variable. If a CLI option is entered, it will override what is set in the environment variable. If not set via CLI option or environment variable, will default to https://updates.jenkins.io/experimental/update-center.actual.json--jenkins-incrementals-repo-mirror: (optional) Sets the incrementals repository mirror, which can also be set via the JENKINS_INCREMENTALS_REPO_MIRROR environment variable. If a CLI option is entered, it will override what is set in the environment variable. If not set via CLI option or environment variable, will default to https://repo.jenkins-ci.org/incrementals.--jenkins-plugin-info: (optional) Sets the location of plugin information, which can also be set via the JENKINS_PLUGIN_INFO environment variable. If a CLI option is provided, it will override what is set in the environment variable. If not set via CLI option or environment variable, will default to https://updates.jenkins.io/current/plugin-versions.json.--jenkins-update-center-download-url: (optional) Sets a custom plugin download URL, which can also be set via the JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD_URL environment variable. If a CLI option is provided, it will override what is set in the environment variable. When set, replaces the plugin download URL from update-center.json with this value. Often used to cache or proxy the Jenkins plugin download site.--version or -v: (optional) Displays the plugin management tool version and exits.--no-download: (optional) Do not download plugins. By default plugins will be downloaded.--skip-failed-plugins: (optional) Adds the option to skip plugins that fail to download - CAUTION should be used when passing this flag as it could leave
Jenkins in a broken state.--credentials: (optional) Comma-separated list of credentials to use for Basic Authentication for specific hosts (and optionally ports), can also be set via the JENKINS_UC_CREDENTIALS environment variable, with CLI having precedence. Each value must adhere to format <host>[:port]:<username>:<password>. The password must not contain a ,! The credentials are not used preemptively.CACHE_DIR: used to configure the directory where the plugins update center cache is located. By default it will be in ~/.cache/jenkins-plugin-management-cli,
if the user doesn't have a home directory when it will go to: $(pwd)/.cache/jenkins-plugin-management-cli.
JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD: DEPRECATED use JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD_URL instead.
JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD_URL: used to configure a custom URL from where plugins will be downloaded from. When this value is set, it replaces the plugin download URL found in the update-center.json file with ${JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD_URL}. Often used to cache or to proxy the Jenkins plugin download site.
If set then all plugins will be downloaded through that URL. Can also be set via the --jenkins-update-center-download-url CLI option, which takes precedence over the environment variable.
No path segments are inserted automatically: whatever path your mirror serves plugin binaries under (e.g. /download/plugins) must be part of the value. See Mirror setup for a configuration example.
JENKINS_UC_HASH_FUNCTION: used to configure the hash function which checks content from UCs. Currently SHA1 (deprecated), SHA256 (default), and SHA512 can be specified.
When the CLI runs against a proxy mirror of updates.jenkins.io, the update-center JSON is fetched from the mirror but the URLs inside that JSON still point at https://updates.jenkins.io/....
Mirrors typically do not rewrite JSON content, so plugin downloads would otherwise bypass the mirror.
The flag --jenkins-update-center-download-url overrides those URLs at download time, so the JSON itself does not need to be rewritten.
Each mirror-related setting can be specified via either a CLI flag or an environment variable; pick whichever fits your invocation:
| Resource | CLI flag | Environment variable | Required for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main update-center JSON | --jenkins-update-center |
JENKINS_UC |
Always |
| Plugin-versions JSON | --jenkins-plugin-info |
JENKINS_PLUGIN_INFO |
Always |
| Experimental update-center JSON | --jenkins-experimental-update-center |
JENKINS_UC_EXPERIMENTAL |
Only if you install experimental versions |
| Incrementals repository | --jenkins-incrementals-repo-mirror |
JENKINS_INCREMENTALS_REPO_MIRROR |
Only if you install incrementals;... plugins |
| Plugin binary download URL | --jenkins-update-center-download-url |
JENKINS_UC_DOWNLOAD_URL |
Routing plugin downloads through the mirror |
The first four entries control where the metadata JSON files are fetched from. The last one controls where the plugin binaries themselves are downloaded from; without it, the download URLs in the JSON (which point at updates.jenkins.io) are used unchanged.
A common setup uses CLI flags for the metadata locations:
java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar \ --war "$JENKINS_WAR" \ --plugin-download-directory "$JENKINS_HOME/plugins" \ --plugin-file "$PLUGINS_TXT" \ --jenkins-update-center "https://mirror.example.com/<updates-path>/update-center.actual.json" \ --jenkins-update-center-download-url "https://mirror.example.com/<updates-path>/download/plugins" \ --jenkins-plugin-info "https://mirror.example.com/<updates-path>/current/plugin-versions.json" \ --latest false
Replace <updates-path> with the path your mirror uses for updates.jenkins.io.
Add --jenkins-experimental-update-center and/or --jenkins-incrementals-repo-mirror only if you actually install experimental or incrementals;... plugins.
The trailing /download/plugins segment on the update center download url is required because it does not insert it automatically.
The expected format for plugins in the .txt file or entered through the --plugins CLI option is artifact ID:version or artifact ID:url or artifact:version:url
Use plugin artifact ID, without -plugin extension. If a plugin cannot be downloaded, -plugin will be appended to the name and download will be retried. This is for cases in which plugins don't follow the rules about artifact ID (i.e. docker plugin).
The version and download url are optional. By default, the latest version of the plugin will be downloaded. If both a version and a url are supplied, the version will not be used to determine the plugin download location and the library will attempt to download the plugin from the given url.
The following custom version specifiers can also be used:
latest - downloads the latest version from a version specific update center if one exists for the version in the Jenkins war file. If no version specific update center exists, will use the main update center https://updates.jenkins.ioexperimental - downloads the latest version from the experimental update center, which offers Alpha and Beta versions of plugins. Default value: https://updates.jenkins.io/experimentalincrementals;org.jenkins-ci.plugins.workflow;2.19-rc289.d09828a05a74 - downloads the plugin from the incrementals repo. For this option you need to specify groupId of the plugin. Note that this value may change between plugin versions without notice. More information on incrementals and their use for Docker images can be found here.A set of plugins can also be provided through a YAML file, using the following format:
plugins: - artifactId: git source: version: latest - artifactId: job-import-plugin source: version: 2.1 - artifactId: docker - artifactId: cloudbees-bitbucket-branch-source source: version: 2.4.4 - artifactId: script-security source: url: http://ftp-chi.osuosl.org/pub/jenkins/plugins/script-security/1.56/script-security.hpi - artifactId: workflow-step-api groupId: org.jenkins-ci.plugins.workflow source: version: 2.19-rc289.d09828a05a74 ...
As with the plugins.txt file, version and URL are optional. If no version is provided, the latest version is used by default. If a groupId is provided, the tool will try to download the plugin from the Jenkins incrementals repository.
The CLI can output a new file with a list of updated plugin references.
Text format:
$ java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar --available-updates --output txt --plugins mailer:1.31Result:
mailer:1.32
YAML format:
$ java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar --available-updates --output yaml --plugins mailer:1.31Result:
plugins: - artifactId: "mailer" source: version: "1.32"
Human readable:
$ java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar --available-updates --plugins mailer:1.31Result:
Available updates:
mailer (1.31) has an available update: 1.32
If a URL is included, then a placeholder should be included for the version. Examples of plugin inputs:
github-branch-source - will download the latest versiongithub-branch-source:latest - will download the latest versiongithub-branch-source:2.5.3 - will download version 2.5.3github-branch-source:experimental - will download the latest version from the experimental update centergithub-branch-source:2.5.2:https://updates.jenkins.io/2.121/latest/github-branch-source.hpi - will download version of plugin at url regardless of requested versiongithub-branch-source:https://updates.jenkins.io/2.121/latest/github-branch-source.hpi - will treat the url like the version, which is not likely the behavior you wantgithub-branch-source::https://updates.jenkins.io/2.121/latest/github-branch-source.hpi - will download plugin from urlIf a plugin to be downloaded from the incrementals repository is requested using the -plugins option from the CLI, the plugin name should be enclosed in quotes, since the semi-colon is otherwise interpreted as the end of the command.
java -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar -p "workflow-support:incrementals;org.jenkins-ci.plugins.workflow;2.19-rc289.d09828a05a74"
Proxy support is available using standard Java networking system properties http.proxyHost and http.proxyPort. Note that this provides only basic NTLM support and you may need to use an authentication proxy like CNTLM to cover more advanced authentication use cases.
# Example using proxy system properties java -Dhttp.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttp.proxyHost=myproxy.example.com -Dhttps.proxyPort=3128 -Dhttps.proxyHost=myproxy.example.com -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jar
Alternatively you can instruct the jdk to use the proxy configured in your system without the need to provide the exact details.
java -Djava.net.useSystemProxies=true -jar jenkins-plugin-manager-*.jarThe plugin manager tries to use update center data to get the latest information about a plugin's dependencies. If this information is unavailable, it will use the dependency information from the downloaded plugin's MANIFEST.MF file. By default, the versions of the plugin dependencies are determined by the update center metadata or the plugin MANIFEST.MF file, but the user can specify other behavior using the latest or latest-specified options.
For plugins listed in a .txt file, each plugin must be listed on a new line. Comments beginning with # will be filtered out.
Support for downloading plugins from maven is not currently supported. JENKINS-58217
When using --latest you may run into a scenario where the jenkins update mirror contains the directory of the newer version of a plugin(release in progress), regardless of if there is a jpi to download, which results in a download failure. It's recommended that you pin your plugin requirement versions until the mirror has been updated to more accurately represent what is available. More information on this challenge can be found here, and here.
The version-pinning behavior of this plugin installer has changed compared to the previous Jenkins plugin installer. By default, --latest option defaults to true, which means that even if you pass a list of pinned versions, these may fail to be installed correctly if they or some other dependency has a newer latest version available. In order to use only pinned versions of plugins, you must pass --latest=false. NOTE: When a new dependency is added to a plugin, it won’t get updated until you notice that it’s missing from your plugin list. (Details here: #250)
Thanks to all our contributors! Check out our CONTRIBUTING file to learn how to get started with issues.