Docs Self-Managed Reference rpk Commands rpk plugin rpk plugin List, download, update, and remove rpk plugins. Plugins augment rpk with new commands. For a plugin to be used, it must be in $HOME/.local/bin or somewhere discoverable by rpk in your $PATH. All plugins follow a defined naming scheme: .rpk-<name> .rpk.ac-<name> All plugins are prefixed with either .rpk- or .rpk.ac-. When rpk starts up, it searches all directories in your $PATH for any executable binary that begins with either of those prefixes. For any binary it finds, rpk adds a command for that name to the rpk command space itself. No plugin name can shadow an existing rpk command, and only one plugin can exist under a given name at once. Plugins are added to the rpk command space on a first-seen basis. If you have two plugins rpk-foo, and the second is discovered later on in the $PATH directories, then only the first will be used. The second will be ignored. Plugins that have an .rpk.ac- prefix indicate that they support the --help-autocomplete flag. If rpk sees this, rpk will exec the plugin with that flag when rpk starts up, and the plugin will return all commands it supports as well as short and long help test for each command. rpk uses this return to build a shadow command space within rpk itself so that it looks as if the plugin exists within rpk. This is particularly useful if you enable autocompletion. The expected return for plugins from --help-autocomplete is an array of the following: type pluginHelp struct { Path string `json:"path,omitempty"` Short string `json:"short,omitempty"` Long string `json:"long,omitempty"` Example string `json:"example,omitempty"` Args []string `json:"args,omitempty"` } where path is an underscore delimited argument path to a command. For example, foo_bar_baz corresponds to the command rpk foo bar baz. Usage rpk plugin [command] Flags Value Type Description -h, --help - Help for plugin. --config string Redpanda or rpk config file; default search paths are /var/lib/redpanda/.config/rpk/rpk.yaml, $PWD/redpanda.yaml, and /etc/redpanda/redpanda.yaml. -X, --config-opt stringArray Override rpk configuration settings. See rpk -X or execute rpk -X help for inline detail or rpk -X list for terser detail. --profile string Profile to use. See rpk profile for more details. -v, --verbose - Enable verbose logging. Back to top × Simple online edits For simple changes, such as fixing a typo, you can edit the content directly on GitHub. Edit on GitHub Or, open an issue to let us know about something that you want us to change. Open an issue Contribution guide For extensive content updates, or if you prefer to work locally, read our contribution guide . Was this helpful? thumb_up thumb_down group Ask in the community mail Share your feedback group_add Make a contribution rpk iotune rpk plugin list