Plugin (build) - CI/CD Glossary Definition

A build plugin extends a bundler across the entire build, unlike a loader that transforms one file at a time.

A build plugin extends a bundler by hooking into the whole build lifecycle rather than a single file, enabling tasks like generating an HTML file, defining globals, or analyzing output. Webpack plugins tap into compiler hooks.

Plugins subscribe to compiler events to perform broad tasks, such as HtmlWebpackPlugin emitting an index.html or DefinePlugin injecting environment values. Rollup and Vite have their own plugin APIs. In CI, plugins commonly emit the manifest and asset hashes used for cache busting.

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