docs-v2/content/telegraf/v1/configure_plugins/external_plugins/shim.md

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Use the `execd` shim		telegraf_v1 name weight parent Use the `execd` shim 50 External plugins

The shim makes it easy to extract an internal input, processor, or output plugin from the main Telegraf repo out to a stand-alone repo. This allows anyone to build and run it as a separate app using one of the execd plugins:

• inputs.execd
• processors.execd
• outputs.execd

Extract a plugin using the shim wrapper

1. Move the project to an external repo. We recommend preserving the path structure: for example, if your plugin was located at plugins/inputs/cpu in the Telegraf repo, move it to plugins/inputs/cpu in the new repo.
2. Copy main.go into your project under the cmd folder. This serves as the entry point to the plugin when run as a stand-alone program. {{% note %}} The shim isn't designed to run multiple plugins at the same time, so include only one plugin per repo. {{% /note %}}
3. Edit the main.go file to import your plugin. For example,_ "github.com/me/my-plugin-telegraf/plugins/inputs/cpu". See an example of where to edit main.go here.
4. Add a plugin.conf for configuration specific to your plugin. {{% note %}} This config file must be separate from the rest of the config for Telegraf, and must not be in a shared directory with other Telegraf configs. {{% /note %}}

Test and run your plugin

1. Build the cmd/main.go using the following command with your plugin name: go build -o plugin-name cmd/main.go
2. Test the binary:
3. If you're building a processor or output, first feed valid metrics in on STDIN. Skip this step if you're building an input.
4. Test out the binary by running it (for example, ./project-name -config plugin.conf). Metrics will be written to STDOUT. You might need to hit enter or wait for your poll duration to elapse to see data.
5. Press Ctrl-C to end your test.
6. Configure Telegraf to call your new plugin binary. For an input, this would look something like:

[[inputs.execd]]
  command = ["/path/to/rand", "-config", "/path/to/plugin.conf"]
  signal = "none"

Refer to the execd plugin documentation for more information.

Publish your plugin

Publishing your plugin to GitHub and open a Pull Request back to the Telegraf repo letting us know about the availability of your external plugin.