About Chef InSpec and Train Plugins

What are Chef InSpec Plugins?

Chef InSpec Plugins are optional software components that extend the capabilities of InSpec. For example, inspec-iggy is a Plugin project that aims to generate Chef InSpec controls from infrastructure-as-code files. Plugins are distributed as RubyGems, and Chef InSpec manages their installation. Chef InSpec Plugins always begin with the prefix ‘inspec-’.

What are Train Plugins?

Train Plugins allow Chef InSpec to speak to new kinds of targets (typically new remote targets or APIs, but you could treat the local system in a new way if you wished to). For example, if you wanted to audit a Kubernetes cluster, you might want a transport that can talk to the supervisor API. You would develop a Train Plugin for that, and install it using the Chef InSpec command line. Train Plugins always begin with the prefix ’train-'.

What can plugins do?

Currently, each plugin can offer one or more of these capabilities:

define new output formats (“reporters”)
input sources
define a new command-line-interface (CLI) command suite (inspec plugins)
connectivity to new types of hosts or cloud providers (train plugins)
DSL extensions at the file, control, describe block, or test level
DSL extensions for custom resources

How do I find out which plugins are available?

The Chef InSpec CLI can tell you which plugins are available:

inspec plugin search inspec-

How do I install and manage plugins?

The Chef InSpec command line now offers a new subcommand just for managing plugins.

You can install a plugin by running:

inspec plugin install inspec-some-plugin
inspec plugin install train-some-plugin

For more details on what the plugin command can do, run inspec plugin help.

How do I use a different Gem server?

You can specify an alternate source by passing the base of your Gem repository to the --source parameter:

inspec plugin search --source https://my.private.server inspec-private
inspec plugin install --source https://my.private.server inspec-private-plugin

How do I write a plugin?

Chef InSpec Plugins

For details on how to author a Chef InSpec Plugin, see the developer documentation

Train Plugins

For details on how to author a Train Plugin, see the developer documentation