Migrating to the Nextflow plugin registry

The Nextflow plugin registry is a central repository for Nextflow plugins. It hosts an index of plugin metadata that supports plugin discovery, accessibility, and version tracking.

The legacy plugin index is deprecated in favor of the Nextflow plugin registry. Starting with Nextflow 25.10, the plugin registry is the only method for downloading plugins, replacing the legacy plugin index.

This page describes the registry’s impact on users and developers, and how to migrate existing plugins.

Migration impact on plugin users

No immediate actions are required for plugin users. The plugin configuration has not changed.

Impact on plugin developers

Plugin developers will need to update their plugin to publish to the Nextflow plugin registry instead of the legacy plugin index. The best way to do this is to migrate to the Nextflow Gradle plugin, which simplifies the development process and supports publishing to the plugin registry from the command line.

Migrating to the Nextflow Gradle plugin

To migrate an existing Nextflow plugin to the Nextflow Gradle plugin:

Remove the following files and folders:
- buildSrc/
- launch.sh
- plugins/build.gradle
If your plugin has a plugins directory, move the src directory to the project root.

Note

Plugin sources should be in src/main/groovy or src/main/java.
Replace the contents of settings.gradle with the following:
```
rootProject.name = '<PLUGIN_NAME>'
```
Replace <PLUGIN_NAME> with your plugin name.
In the project root, create a new build.gradle file with the following configuration:
```
// Plugins
plugins {
    id 'io.nextflow.nextflow-plugin' version '1.0.0-beta.6'
}

// Dependencies (optional)
dependencies {
    <DEPENDENCY>
}

// Plugin version
version = '<PLUGIN_VERSION>'

nextflowPlugin {
    // Minimum Nextflow version
    nextflowVersion = '<MINIMUM_NEXTFLOW_VERSION>'

    // Plugin metadata
    provider = '<PROVIDER>'
    className = '<CLASS_NAME>'
    extensionPoints = [
        '<EXTENSION_POINT>'
    ]

}
```
Replace the following:
- <DEPENDENCY>: (Optional) Your plugins dependency libraries. For example, commons-io:commons-io:2.18.0.
- <PLUGIN_VERSION>: Your plugin version. For example, 0.5.0.
- <MINIMUM_NEXTFLOW_VERSION>: The minimum Nextflow version required to run your plugin. For example, 25.04.0.
- <PROVIDER>: Your name or organization. For example, acme.
- <CLASS_NAME>: Your plugin class name. For example, acme.plugin.MyPlugin.
- <EXTENSION_POINT>: Your extension point identifiers that the plugin will implement or expose. For example, acme.plugin.MyFactory.

Replace the contents of Makefile with the following:

# Build the plugin
assemble:
    ./gradlew assemble

clean:
    rm -rf .nextflow*
    rm -rf work
    rm -rf build
    ./gradlew clean

# Run plugin unit tests
test:
    ./gradlew test

# Install the plugin into local nextflow plugins dir
install:
    ./gradlew install

# Publish the plugin
release:
    ./gradlew releasePlugin

Update README.md with information about the structure of your plugin.
In the plugin root directory, run make assemble.

Alternatively, use the nextflow plugin create command to re-create your plugin with the plugin template and add your existing plugin code. See Nextflow plugin template for more information about the plugin template.

Publishing to the Nextflow plugin registry

The Nextflow Gradle plugin supports publishing plugins from the command line. See Publishing a plugin for more information.

The legacy plugin index is closed to new pull requests. It will be kept up-to-date with the plugin registry and will remain available indefinitely to ensure continued support for older versions of Nextflow.