# Does Discourse have custom plugin templates, and how do I write custom plugins?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 14, 2025, 3:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523 "2025-08-14T03:30:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@sky-winter](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sky-winter)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 3:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/1 "2025-08-14T03:30:10Z")
> Does Discourse have custom plugin templates, and how do I write custom plugins?
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### Author:  [@Lhc\_fl](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lhc_fl)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/2 "2025-08-14T03:41:14Z")
> [@Developing Discourse Plugins - Part 1 - Create a basic plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/developing-discourse-plugins-part-1-create-a-basic-plugin/30515):
>
> Building a plugin in Discourse can be really simple, once you learn a couple of quirks. The goal of this post is to create a skeleton plugin and introduce you to the basics. Your development environment Make sure you have a development environment of Discourse running on your computer. I recommend you use [the appropriate setup guide](https://meta.discourse.org/tag/dev-install) and come back when you’re done. plugin.rbtada Use [GitHub - discourse/discourse-plugin-skeleton: Template for Discourse plugins · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-plugin-skeleton) to create a complete di…
You need to have a Discourse development install. For example, [Developing Discourse using a Dev Container](https://meta.discourse.org/t/developing-discourse-using-a-dev-container/336366?silent=true)
After install it, run
```plaintext
rake plugin:create[your-plugin-name]
```
It will pull [discourse/discourse-plugin-skeleton: Template for Discourse plugins](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-plugin-skeleton) to generate a plugin with the most modern and recommend starting template.
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### Author:  [@sky-winter](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sky-winter)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 6:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/3 "2025-08-14T06:59:17Z")
Can dev containers be used as a development environment for Discourse?
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/4 "2025-08-14T07:42:23Z")
Yes, as linked above:
> [@Developing Discourse using a Dev Container](https://meta.discourse.org/t/developing-discourse-using-a-dev-container/336366?silent=true):
>
> [Dev Containers](https://containers.dev/) is an open standard for configuring a development environment inside a container. This almost entirely eliminates the need to install/configure Discourse-specific tools/dependencies on your local machine, and makes it very easy to keep up-to-date as Discourse evolves over time. Dev Containers can be used in a number of different IDEs, or directly using their reference CLI. This guide will describe the setup process for VSCode. Getting started [Download and install](https://code.visualstudio.com/) VSCode Ins…
You can also run a dev env in Guthub Codespaces:
> [@Developing Discourse on GitHub Codespaces](https://meta.discourse.org/t/-/336131?silent=true):
>
> [GitHub Codespaces](https://github.com/features/codespaces) is a very fast way to get started with Discourse development. Their free tier is good for 30 hours per month of a 4-core machine. Getting Started Navigate to [the github repository](https://github.com/discourse/discourse) Press the , (comma) key on your keyboard, to open GitHub codespaces Use ‘change options’ to customize the machine. Technically, the 2-core machine will work, but we recommend using at least 4-core for a better experience. Click “Create Codespace” Wait for the contai…
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### Author:  [@sky-winter](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sky-winter)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 9:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/6 "2025-08-14T09:10:57Z")
 Using GitHub, the default shortcuts are not working. Where else can I operate?
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### Author:  [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse/378523/7 "2025-08-14T10:31:16Z")
Perhaps try selecting the terminal input and then pressing the keys?
If the shortcut keys still aren’t working, I think you may have to run the commands here:
>