Contribute to Kibana [development]

{{kib}} is a pluggable platform for searching, visualizing, and analyzing data in Elasticsearch. Most of the UI you see in {{kib}} is built inside a plugin, and the platform is designed to be extended — both by plugins in the repository and by plugins developed outside it.

This documentation is organized into five sections. Pick the one that matches what you need.

• Getting started — set up a local environment, run {{kib}}, and build your first "Hello World" plugin.
• Key concepts — the mental models and architecture you need to build on the platform: plugins vs. packages vs. core, the lifecycle, saved objects, security, performance, embeddables, and more.
• Tutorials — task-focused, hands-on walkthroughs for common plugin development tasks (registering routes, configuring your plugin, accessing data, adding logging, and so on).
• Testing — the testing pyramid for {{kib}} plugins: Jest unit/integration, Scout (Playwright) for UI and API, and legacy FTR.
• Contributing — how to work inside the {{kib}} repository: standards, pull requests, CI, linting, debugging, and build.

Where to start

• New to {{kib}} development? Start with Getting started, then the Hello World plugin.
• Building on the platform from outside the repo? See the external plugin development guide after you've set up an environment.
• Landing on a specific task? Jump directly to Tutorials and find it by category.

Reference

• Plugin list — inventory of built-in plugins with short descriptions.
• Dependency versions — version matrix for {{kib}}'s runtime dependencies.