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<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage"><head><meta charset="utf-8"><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"><title>Creating plugins - Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css"><link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/img/favicons/apple-touch-icon.png" sizes="180x180"><link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/img/favicons/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"><link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="/img/favicons/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"><link rel="manifest" href="/img/favicons/manifest.json"><link rel="mask-icon" href="/img/favicons/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#e48632"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="/img/favicons/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="msapplication-config" content="/img/favicons/browserconfig.xml"><meta name="theme-color" content="#e48632"><meta property="og:title" content="Creating plugins - Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:url" content="https://gruntjs.com/"><meta property="og:image" content="https://gruntjs.com/img/og.png"><meta property="og:image:type" content="image/png"><meta property="og:image:width" content="256"><meta property="og:image:height" content="256"><meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"><meta name="twitter:creator" content="@gruntjs"><meta name="twitter:site" content="@gruntjs"><meta name="twitter:title" content="Creating plugins - Grunt: The JavaScript Task Runner"><meta itemprop="name" content="Grunt"><meta itemprop="image" content="/img/og.png"><link href="/rss" rel="alternate" title="Grunt Blog Feed" type="application/atom+xml"></head><body class="page-docs page-secondary"><div class="banner"> <a href="support">V1.6.1 is the current version, and previous versions are not supported. Upgrade to the latest version or consider other support options.</a></div><div class="navbar navbar-inverse"><div class="navbar-inner"><div class="container"><a class="brand" href="/"><span class="logo"></span></a><div class="nav-collapse collapse"><ul class="nav"><li><a href="/getting-started"><i class="icon-arrow-right"></i><span>Getting Started</span></a></li><li><a href="/configuring-tasks"><i class="icon-cog"></i><span>Configuring Tasks</span></a></li><li><a href="/plugins"><i class="icon-power-cord"></i><span>Plugins</span></a></li><li><a href="/documentation"><i class="icon-file-text"></i><span>Documentation</span></a></li><li><a href="/support"><i class="icon-file-text"></i><span>Support</span></a></li></ul><form class="navbar-search pull-right"><input class="search-query" type="text" placeholder="Search"></form></div></div></div></div><div class="content"><div class="container creating-plugins"><div class="row-fluid"><div class="span9 page"><div class="hero-unit"><h1>Creating plugins</h1><ol> <li>Install <a href="https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-init">grunt-init</a> with <code>npm install -g grunt-init</code></li> <li>Install the gruntplugin template with <code>git clone git://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-init-gruntplugin.git ~/.grunt-init/gruntplugin</code> (<code>%USERPROFILE%\.grunt-init\gruntplugin</code> on Windows).</li> <li>Run <code>grunt-init gruntplugin</code> in an empty directory.</li> <li>Run <code>npm install</code> to prepare the development environment.</li> <li>Author your plugin.</li> <li>Run <code>npm publish</code> to publish the Grunt plugin to npm!</li> </ol> <h2><a class="anchor" href="#notes" id="notes"></a>Notes</h2> <h3><a class="anchor" href="#naming-your-task" id="naming-your-task"></a>Naming your task</h3> <p>The "grunt-contrib" namespace is reserved for tasks maintained by the Grunt team, please name your task something appropriate that avoids that naming scheme.</p> <h3><a class="anchor" href="#debugging" id="debugging"></a>Debugging</h3> <p>Grunt hides error stack traces by default, but they can be enabled for easier task debugging with the <code>--stack</code> option. If you want Grunt to always log stack traces on errors, create an alias in your shell. Eg, in bash, you could do <code>alias grunt='grunt --stack'</code>.</p> <h3><a class="anchor" href="#storing-task-files" id="storing-task-files"></a>Storing task files</h3> <p>Only store data files in a .grunt/[npm-module-name]/ directory at the project's root and clean up after yourself when appropriate. This is not a solution for temporary scratch files, use one of the common npm modules (eg <a href="https://www.npmjs.org/package/temporary">temporary</a>, <a href="https://www.npmjs.org/package/tmp">tmp</a>) that take advantage of the OS level temporary directories for that case.</p> <h3><a class="anchor" href="#avoid-changing-the-current-working-directory:-process.cwd" id="avoid-changing-the-current-working-directory:-process.cwd"></a>Avoid Changing the Current Working Directory: <code>process.cwd()</code></h3> <p>By default, the current working directory is set to be the directory that contains the gruntfile. The user can change it using <code>grunt.file.setBase()</code> in their gruntfile, but plugins should take care to not change it.</p> <p><code>path.resolve('foo')</code> can be used to get the absolute path of the filepath 'foo' relative to the <code>Gruntfile</code>.</p> <h3><a class="anchor" href="#creating-your-task" id="creating-your-task"></a>Creating your task</h3> <p>You might also want to know how to <a href="https://gruntjs.com/creating-tasks">create your own tasks</a> or take a look at the <a href="https://gruntjs.com/api">API</a> reference.</p> <div class="end-link">Found an error in the documentation? <a href='https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-docs/issues'>File an issue</a>.</div></div></div><div class="span3"><div class="well sidebar-nav"><ul class="nav nav-list"><li class="nav-header"><i class="icon-file-text"></i><span>Documentation</span></li><li><a href="/getting-started">Getting Started</a></li><li><a href="/configuring-tasks">Configuring Tasks</a></li><li><a href="/sample-gruntfile">Sample Gruntfile</a></li><li><a href="/creating-tasks">Creating Tasks</a></li><li><a class="active" href="/creating-plugins">Creating Plugins</a></li><li><a href="/using-the-cli">Using the CLI</a></li></ul><ul class="nav nav-list"><li class="nav-header"><span>Advanced</span></li><li><a href="/api">API</a></li><li><a href="/installing-grunt">Installing Grunt</a></li><li><a href="/frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li><li><a href="/project-scaffolding">Project Scaffolding</a></li></ul><ul class="nav nav-list"><li class="nav-header"><span>Community</span></li><li><a href="/support">Support</a></li><li><a href="/help-resources">Help Resources</a></li><li><a href="/who-uses-grunt">Who uses Grunt</a></li><li><a href="/built-with-grunt-badge">Built with Grunt Badge</a></li><li><a href="/contributing">Contributing</a></li><li><a href="/development-team">Development Team</a></li></ul><ul class="nav nav-list"><li class="nav-header"><span>Migration guides</span></li><li><a href="/upgrading-from-0.3-to-0.4">Upgrading from 0.3 to 0.4</a></li><li><a href="/upgrading-from-0.4-to-1.0">Upgrading from 0.4 to 1.0</a></li></ul></div></div></div></div></div><footer class="grunt-footer"><div class="inner"><div class="container"><ul class="pull-right"><li><a href="/blog">Blog</a></li><li><a href="/upgrading-from-0.3-to-0.4">Migration Guides</a></li><li><a href="/contributing">Contributing</a></li><li><a href="/development-team">Development Team</a></li><li class="social"><a href="https://github.com/gruntjs/" title="Grunt on GitHub"><span class="icon-github"></span></a></li><li class="social"><a href="https://twitter.com/gruntjs/" title="Grunt on Twitter"><span class="icon-twitter"></span></a></li><li class="social"><a href="/rss" title="Grunt blog RSS feed"><span class="icon-rss"></span></a></li><li class="openjs"><a href="https://openjsf.org/" title="OpenJS Foundation"><img src="/img/openjsf-color-textw.svg" alt="OpenJS Foundation" width="100" height="31"></a></li></ul></div></div></footer></body></html>