Common Plugins

A handful of essential plugins power most real-world Jenkins pipelines.

While there are thousands of plugins, a small core set appears in almost every setup. Knowing these covers most needs.

Essential plugins

  • Pipeline (workflow-aggregator) — the whole declarative/scripted pipeline system.
  • Git — clone and interact with Git repositories.
  • Docker Pipeline — build images and run steps in containers.
  • Credentials Binding — inject secrets into builds.
  • Blue Ocean — a modern, visual pipeline UI.
  • JUnit — publish test results and trends.
  • Slack / Email Extension — send build notifications.

Choosing plugins

Prefer popular, actively maintained plugins. Check the install count and last release date on the plugin page.

Example

Example · bash
# Most-used plugin IDs (for automated installs):

workflow-aggregator   # Pipeline
git                   # Git
docker-workflow       # Docker Pipeline
credentials-binding   # inject secrets
junit                 # test reports
blueocean             # visual UI
slack                 # Slack notifications

When to use it

  • The Pipeline plugin is installed to unlock the Jenkinsfile-based declarative pipeline capability that Jenkins does not ship with by default.
  • The Git plugin is added so Jenkins can check out any Git repository, which is required by nearly every real-world pipeline.
  • The JUnit plugin is installed to parse test-report XML files and display a trend graph on the job page.

More examples

Publish JUnit results

Uses the JUnit plugin's junit step to publish Maven Surefire test results after every build.

Example · groovy
post {
  always {
    junit 'target/surefire-reports/*.xml'
  }
}

HTML Publisher plugin usage

Uses the HTML Publisher plugin to serve an LCOV code-coverage report directly from the Jenkins build page.

Example · groovy
post {
  always {
    publishHTML(target: [
      allowMissing: false,
      reportDir:    'coverage/lcov-report',
      reportFiles:  'index.html',
      reportName:   'Coverage Report'
    ])
  }
}

Slack Notification plugin

Sends a red failure alert to a Slack channel using the Slack Notification plugin.

Example · groovy
post {
  failure {
    slackSend(
      channel: '#builds',
      color: 'danger',
      message: "FAILED: ${JOB_NAME} #${BUILD_NUMBER} (<${BUILD_URL}|Open>)"
    )
  }
}

Related

jenkins plugin managerjenkins notifications

Discussion

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