Caution

Support for plugin-uploader and plugin-packer is available through August 2026.

Use this command in cli-kintone instead. plugin pack

For more information, refer to the following link:
Migrate from js-sdk

Overview

This article introduces plugin-packer, a plug-in development tool designed to make the development of Kintone plug-ins easier.

What is plugin-packer?

Plugin-packer is a CLI tool that packages the plug-in directory to generate plug-in zip files.
The tool is published on npm and is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Find the source code on GitHub .

Check the engines property in package.json for the Node.js version requirements.
For example, if the following property is stated, version 10 or higher is required.

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"engines": {
  "node": ">=10"
}

Installation

An example of global installation of plugin-packer using npm:

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$ npm install -g @kintone/plugin-packer

Basic usage

First, arrange the plug-in files as shown in the image below.
The contents and locations of the files are described in the following article:
Plug-in Development Specifications

Run the following command to package the files (suppose that the src file lies under the sample_project directory):

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$ cd sample_project
$ kintone-plugin-packer src

Execution sample

Initially, the file tree including the plug-in files should be in this structure:

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# Confirm the directory structure before execution
$ tree
.
└── src
    ├── css
    │   ├── 51-modern-default.css
    │   ├── config.css
    │   └── desktop.css
    ├── html
    │   └── config.html
    ├── image
    │   └── icon.png
    ├── js
    │   ├── config.js
    │   └── desktop.js
    └── manifest.json

Run the following command to package the files within the src file into a plug-in:

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# Running plugin-packer
$ kintone-plugin-packer src

Succeeded: dir_path/plugin-packer/plugin.zip

The file tree should now be updated into the following structure:

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# Confirm execution result
# => plugin.zip and ppk file are generated
$ tree

.
├── faabchdodajloackbgnipilddblmkejp.ppk
├── plugin.zip
└── src
    ├── css
    │   ├── 51-modern-default.css
    │   ├── config.css
    │   └── desktop.css
    ├── html
    │   └── config.html
    ├── image
    │   └── icon.png
    ├── js
    │   ├── config.js
    │   └── desktop.js
    └── manifest.json

After running the command, a plugin.zip file and a secret key are generated.
This plugin.zip file can be installed into a Kintone domain.

Optional features

Packaging for the second time

When running the command to package the files for the second time, specify the secret key using the --ppk option.

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$ kintone-plugin-packer --ppk plugin_key src

Specifying the output directory and file name of the zip file

The output directory and file name of the plug-in zip file can be specified using the --out option.

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$ kintone-plugin-packer --put ../zip_dir/test.zip src

If the --out option is not specified, a zip file named "plugin.zip" is created under the same directory where the src file is located.

File monitoring

A plug-in zip file can be created automatically at specific timings by monitoring directory changes using --watch.

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$ kintone-plugin-packer --watch src

To stop monitoring, cancel the command with "Ctrl + c".

The plugin zip file is created/updated at the following times with the --watch command:

• When the --watch command is first enabled
• When a file inside the monitored folder is opened
• When a file inside the monitored folder is saved

If the plug-in zip file already exists, the file will be updated instead of creating duplicates. If the .ppk file (the file created along with the plugin zip file) is deleted while the --watch command is enabled, the plug-in zip file will not be created/updated. In this case, restart the --watch command.

Notes

For questions on how to use the plugin-packer tool, post a question in the Kintone Developer Forum . For reporting bugs and other issues, post it as a GitHub Issue in the plugin-packer repository . Modification, redistribution, and commercial use of the source code is subject to the license agreement.