setting-up-plugins.html.slim

---
title: How to use CocoaPods plugins
description: Understand how a CocoaPods plugin works and how to use them in your projects
order: 0
---

markdown: 
  ## CocoaPods + Plugins

  CocoaPods is a community project run by very few maintainers with a massive surface area to maintain. It's safe to say 
  that CocoaPods could never support every feature that Xcode supports, and even then the team has to say "no" to a lot of
  potentially useful features.

  Rather than let that be the end of the discussion, back in [2013 CocoaPods added support](https://blog.cocoapods.org/CocoaPods-0.28/) for CocoaPods Plugins. 
  The plugin architecture allowed others to extend CocoaPods to support features that don't fit the main goal of dependency
  management and eco-system growth.

  ### What can CocoaPods Plugins do?

  A CocoaPods Plugin can:

  - Hook into the install process, both before and after
  - Add new commands to `pod`
  - Do whatever they want, because Ruby is a very dynamic language

  This means the scope of a plugin is generally related to adding features to your build process, but can really do anything
  you want. For example [`cocoapods-roulette`](https://github.com/sirlantis/cocoapods-roulette) generates a new iOS app
  with three random Pods. We keep a relatively curated list of all plugins, you can see them at the end of this article.

  ### How do I install a plugin

  You will want to use a `Gemfile`, if you've never used a Gemfile before or want a refresher - check out our guide
  ["Using a Gemfile"](/using/a-gemfile.html). All CocoaPods Plugins are Gems, and they are installed by first adding 
  them to the `Gemfile`, then you need to mention that they exist inside your Podfile. 

  For example, to use [cocoapods-repo-update](https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/cocoapods-repo-update) - you need to 
  amend your `Gemfile`:

  <pre><code>  source 'https://rubygems.org'

    gem 'cocoapods'
  + gem 'cocoapods-repo-update'
    gem 'fastlane'
  </code></pre>

  Then add a reference to it in your `Podfile`:

  <pre><code>  platform :ios, '9.0'
  + plugin 'cocoapods-repo-update'

    use_frameworks!

    # OWS Pods
    pod 'SignalCoreKit', git: 'https://github.com/signalapp/SignalCoreKit.git', testspecs: ["Tests"]
  </code></pre>

  Running `bundle exec pod install` will then have the `cocoapods-repo-update` plugin executed also.

  ### What Plugins Exist?

  There's quite a few! If you have some more to add, send us a PR to [this JSON file](https://github.com/CocoaPods/cocoapods-plugins/blob/master/plugins.json)

- json = JSON.parse(File.read "docs_data/plugins.json")
- plugins = json["plugins"].sort_by { |p| p["name"] }

</div></div>

css:
  .quarter-or-xs-half {
    width: 25%;
  }

  @media (max-width: 767px){
    .quarter-or-xs-half {
      width: 50%;
    }
  }

div style="padding: 20px; flex-wrap: wrap; display: flex;"
  - plugins.each do |plugin|
    div.quarter-or-xs-half style='padding: 20px;' 
    
      h4
        a href=plugin["url"] = plugin["name"]
      p = plugin["description"]