# Plugins

Stash supports the running tasks via plugins. Plugins can be implemented using embedded Javascript, or by calling an external binary.

> **⚠️ Note:** Plugin support is still experimental and is likely to change.

# Adding plugins

By default, Stash looks for plugin configurations in the `plugins` sub-directory of the directory where the stash `config.yml` is read. This will either be the `$HOME/.stash` directory or the current working directory.

Plugins are added by adding configuration yaml files (format: `pluginName.yml`) to the `plugins` directory.

Loaded plugins can be viewed in the Plugins page of the Settings. After plugins are added, removed or edited while stash is running, they can be reloaded by clicking `Reload Plugins` button.

# Using plugins

Plugins provide tasks which can be run from the Tasks page. 

# Creating plugins

See [External Plugins](/help/ExternalPlugins.md) for details for making external plugins.

See [Embedded Plugins](/help/EmbeddedPlugins.md) for details for making embedded plugins.

## Plugin input

Plugins may accept an input from the stash server. This input is encoded according to the interface, and has the following structure (presented here in JSON format):
```
{
    "server_connection": {
        "Scheme": "http",
        "Port": 9999,
        "SessionCookie": {
            "Name":"session",
            "Value":"cookie-value",
            "Path":"",
            "Domain":"",
            "Expires":"0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
            "RawExpires":"",
            "MaxAge":0,
            "Secure":false,
            "HttpOnly":false,
            "SameSite":0,
            "Raw":"",
            "Unparsed":null
        },
        "Dir": <path to stash config directory>,
        "PluginDir": <path to plugin config directory>,
    },
    "args": {
        "argKey": "argValue"
    }
}
```

The `server_connection` field contains all the information needed for a plugin to access the parent stash server, if necessary.

## Plugin output

Plugin output is expected in the following structure (presented here as JSON format):

```
{
    "error": <optional error string>
    "output": <anything>
}
```

The `error` field is logged in stash at the `error` log level if present. The `output` is written at the `debug` log level.