Since |Flake8| 2.0, the |Flake8| tool has allowed for extensions and custom plugins. In |Flake8| 3.0, we're expanding that ability to customize and extend and we're attempting to thoroughly document it. Some of the documentation in this section may reference third-party documentation to reduce duplication and to point you, the developer, towards the authoritative documentation for those pieces.
To get started writing a |Flake8| :term:`plugin` you first need:
- An idea for a plugin
- An available package name on PyPI
- One or more versions of Python installed
- A text editor or IDE of some kind
- An idea of what kind of plugin you want to build:
- Formatter
- Check
Once you've gathered these things, you can get started.
All plugins for |Flake8| must be registered via entry points. In this section we cover:
- How to register your plugin so |Flake8| can find it
- How to make |Flake8| provide your check plugin with information (via command-line flags, function/class parameters, etc.)
- How to make a formatter plugin
- How to write your check plugin so that it works with |Flake8| 2.x and 3.x
.. toctree::
:caption: Plugin Developer Documentation
:maxdepth: 2
registering-plugins
plugin-parameters
formatters
cross-compatibility