Plugins are the building blocks of features in a Docusaurus 2 site. Each plugin handles its own individual feature. Plugins may work and be distributed as part of bundle via presets.

Available plugins

We maintain a list of official plugins, but the community has also created some unofficial plugins.

Installing a plugin

A plugin is usually a npm package, so you install them like other npm packages using npm.
npm install --save docusaurus-plugin-name
Then you add it in your site's docusaurus.config.js's plugins option:
module.exports = {
  // ...
  plugins: ['@docusaurus/plugin-content-pages'],
};
Docusaurus can also load plugins from your local directory, you can do something like the following:
const path = require('path');
module.exports = {
  // ...
  plugins: [path.resolve(__dirname, '/path/to/docusaurus-local-plugin')],
};

Configuring plugins

For the most basic usage of plugins, you can provide just the plugin name or the absolute path to the plugin.
However, plugins can have options specified by wrapping the name and an options object in an array inside your config. This style is usually called Babel Style.
module.exports = {
  // ...
  plugins: [
    [
      '@docusaurus/plugin-xxx',
      {
        /* options */
      },
    ],
  ],
};
Example:
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    // Basic usage.
    '@docusaurus/plugin-google-analytics',
    // With options object (babel style)
    [
      '@docusaurus/plugin-sitemap',
      {
        cacheTime: 600 * 1000,
      },
    ],
  ],
};

Multi-instance plugins and plugin ids

It is possible to use multiple times the same plugin, on the same Docusaurus website.
In this case, it is required to assign a unique id to each plugin instance.
By default, the plugin id is default.
module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    [
      '@docusaurus/plugin-xxx',
      {
        id: 'plugin-xxx-1',
        // other options
      },
    ],
    [
      '@docusaurus/plugin-xxx',
      {
        id: 'plugin-xxx-2',
        // other options
      },
    ],
  ],
};

Plugins design

Docusaurus' implementation of the plugins system provides us with a convenient way to hook into the website's lifecycle to modify what goes on during development/build, which involves (but not limited to) extending the webpack config, modifying the data being loaded and creating new components to be used in a page.

Creating plugins

A plugin is a module which exports a function that takes two parameters and returns an object when executed.

Module definition

The exported modules for plugins are called with two parameters: context and options and returns a JavaScript object with defining the lifecycle APIs.
For example if you have a reference to a local folder such as this in your docusaurus.config.js:
module.exports = {
  // ...
  plugins: [path.resolve(__dirname, 'my-plugin')],
};
Then in the folder my-plugin you can create an index.js such as this
module.exports = function (context, options) {
  // ...
  return {
    name: 'my-docusaurus-plugin',
    async loadContent() {
      /* ... */
    },
    async contentLoaded({content, actions}) {
      /* ... */
    },
    /* other lifecycle API */
  };
};
The my-plugin folder could also be a fully fledged package with it's own package.json and a src/index.js file for example

context

context is plugin-agnostic and the same object will be passed into all plugins used for a Docusaurus website. The context object contains the following fields:
interface LoadContext {
  siteDir: string;
  generatedFilesDir: string;
  siteConfig: DocusaurusConfig;
  outDir: string;
  baseUrl: string;
}

options

options are the second optional parameter when the plugins are used. options are plugin-specific and are specified by users when they use them in docusaurus.config.js. Alternatively, if preset contains the plugin, the preset will then be in charge of passing the correct options into the plugin. It is up to individual plugin to define what options it takes.

Return value

The returned object value should implement the lifecycle APIs.