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nomad/website/content/plugins/author/index.mdx
Michael Smithhisler f2b831a430 docs: add job spec and plugin authoring pages for secrets (#26529)
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Co-authored-by: Aimee Ukasick <aimee.ukasick@hashicorp.com>
2025-10-01 10:46:12 -04:00

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---
layout: docs
page_title: Nomad plugin authoring guide
description: |-
Expand Nomad functionality by authoring your own plugins.
---
# Nomad plugin authoring guide
Nomad implements a plugin framework that lets you extend the functionality of
some components within Nomad. The design of the plugin system is inspired by the
lessons learned from plugin systems implemented in other HashiCorp products such
as Terraform and Vault.
The following components are currently pluggable within Nomad:
- [Device](/nomad/plugins/author/device): Extend workload functionality with a
custom hardware device.
- [Host volume](/nomad/plugins/author/host-volume): Extend workload storage
functionality with a plugin specific to your local storage environment.
- [Secret provider](/nomad/plugins/author/secret-provider): Extend task
execution functionality with a custom secret provider.
- [Task driver](/nomad/plugins/author/task-driver): Extend task execution
functionality with a custom task driver.
## Architecture
### Go-plugin
The Nomad task driver and device plugin framework uses the [go-plugin][goplugin]
project to expose a language-independent plugin interface. Plugins implement a
set of gRPC services and methods that Nomad manages by running the plugin and
calling the implemented RPCs. As a result, plugins are free to be implemented
in the author's language of choice. To facilitate plugin development, a set of
Go interfaces and structs exist for each plugin type that abstracts away
go-plugin and the gRPC interface. The guides in this documentation reference
these abstractions for ease of use.
### Common plugin interface
The Nomad secret provider formalized a pattern first introduced with dynamic
host volume plugins into a common plugin interface. These plugins differ from
Go-plugins in that they generally perform a simple task and exit, not needing to
run for extended periods of time or needing to manage other resources similar to
task and device drivers. Common plugins must implement a `fingerprint` command
and implementation-specific commands.
The parent directory of all common plugin implementations is managed via the
[common_plugin_dir][common_plugin_dir], with each implementation residing in a
specific subdirectory. Check the specific plugin's documentation for directory details.
[goplugin]: https://github.com/hashicorp/go-plugin
[common_plugin_dir]: /nomad/docs/configuration/client#common_plugin_dir
[host_volume_plugin_dir]: /nomad/docs/configuration/client#host_volume_plugin_dir