---
url: /en/paas/plugin-source.md
description: >-
  Explains how to configure Plugin Market data sources for the CNB PAAS
  platform, where each source is a JSON array of plugin definitions managed
  through the admin panel.
---
In CNB, a plugin is essentially a Docker image.

The Plugin Market is the portal for aggregating and displaying plugins for users to browse and select.

## Data Source

A plugin data source is a JSON-formatted array, where each element represents a plugin.

Administrators configure multiple data sources by category at
**Admin Panel → Backend Management → Feature Configuration
→ Document Data Source Management**.

The example below shows the complete structure of a single plugin element:

```json
[
  {
    "id": "cnbcool/hello-world",
    "name": "hello world",
    "description": "A simple plugin demo",
    "tags": ["demo"],
    "readme": "https://raw.example.com/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world/README.md",
    "logo": "https://raw.example.com/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world/logo.png",
    "source": "https://cnb.cool/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world",
    "bugs": "https://cnb.cool/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world/-/issues",
    "images": "https://hub.docker.com/r/cnbcool/hello-world/tags"
  }
]
```

| Field         | Description                                          |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `id`          | Unique plugin ID, usually formatted as `org/plugin`  |
| `name`        | Plugin display name                                  |
| `description` | Plugin summary shown on the plugin card              |
| `tags`        | Plugin tags for classification and search            |
| `readme`      | Raw URL of the plugin README for usage instructions  |
| `logo`        | Raw URL of the plugin logo                           |
| `source`      | Plugin source repository URL                         |
| `bugs`        | Plugin issue feedback URL                            |
| `images`      | URL listing available tags of the plugin image       |

## Example Project

Manually maintaining multiple plugins in a single JSON file is inconvenient.
Refer to the [Example Project](https://cnb.cool/examples/ecosystem/plugins-data-source):
organize plugins in separate directories and use a pipeline
to automatically aggregate them into `plugins.json`.

The aggregated output of the example project looks like:

```json
[
  {
    "id": "hello-world",
    "name": "hello world",
    "description": "A simple plugin demo",
    "tags": ["demo"],
    "readme": "https://cnb.cool/examples/ecosystem/plugins-data-source/-/git/raw/main/plugins/hello-world/README.md",
    "logo": "https://cnb.cool/examples/ecosystem/plugins-data-source/-/git/raw/main/plugins/hello-world/logo.png",
    "source": "https://cnb.cool/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world",
    "bugs": "https://cnb.cool/cnb/plugins/cnbcool/hello-world/-/issues",
    "images": "https://hub.docker.com/r/cnbcool/hello-world/tags"
  }
]
```