Introduction to Plugins

This section provides an overview of Insomnia’s plugins, which can be used to extend the functionality of Insomnia. Plugins are commonly used when more advanced behavior is needed, like custom authentication mechanisms and complex workflows.

You can create your own Insomnia plugin and upload it via Insomnia Preferences within the app or via NPM. Generally, plugins do the following:

  • Add a custom template tag for rendering custom values
  • Define a hook that can do things like intercept requests and responses to add custom behavior

Browse our current community NPM plugins on the Insomnia Plugin Hub. Insomnia cannot make guarantees around the usability, maintenance, and security of third-party plugins.

Add a Plugin

To add an Insomnia plugin, go to Preferences, represented by the cog icon in the top right corner of your application. Then click the Plugins tab. Enter the name of the plugin you want to add, then click Install Plugin.

You do not have to reload the app for the plugin apply after it’s added. Plugins are enabled by default.

Disable a Plugin

To disable an Insomnia plugin, go to Preferences, represented by the cog icon in the top right corner of your application. Then click the Plugins tab. Toggle Enable? for the plugin you want to disable.

Remove a Plugin

To remove an Insomnia Plugin permanently, navigate to the following location on your machine and delete the plugin folder manually:

  • MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Insomnia/plugins/ (escaped version: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Insomnia/plugins/)
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Roaming\Insomnia\plugins\
  • Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Insomnia/plugins/ or ~/.config/Insomnia/plugins/

You can always re-add the plugin if it’s still available.

Create a Plugin

An Insomnia plugin is a NodeJS module that is placed in a specific directory that Insomnia will recognize.

Plugin File Location

In order for Insomnia to recognize your plugin as an Insomnia plugin, your files must live in the following locations:

  • MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Insomnia/plugins/ (escaped version: ~/Library/Application\ Support/Insomnia/plugins/)
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Roaming\Insomnia\plugins\
  • Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Insomnia/plugins/ or ~/.config/Insomnia/plugins/

Note: To quickly create a plugin in the proper path with starter files via the Insomnia app, go to Preferences and click on the Plugins tab. Click on Generate New Plugin and enter your plugin name. If you don’t prepend the title with insomnia-plugin-, it will automatically be added.

Plugin File Structure

An Insomnia plugin directory requires at least two files. In the following example, the plugin title is base64 and contains the files package.json and app.js.

base64/
 ├── package.json   # Node module metadata
 └── app.js         # One or more JavaScript files

Plugin package.json

The package.json configuration includes the following content:

  • Overall
    • name (must be prepended with insomnia-plugin-)
    • version
    • main (file entry point)
  • Insomnia-specific metadata
  • Optional plugin metadata
  • External dependencies

The following is an example minimal package.json. The package.json must contain an insomnia attribute to be identified as an Insomnia plugin.

{
  "name": "insomnia-plugin-base64", // NPM module name, must be prepended with insomnia-plugin-
  "version": "1.0.0",               // Plugin version
  "main": "app.js",                 // Entry point

  // Insomnia-specific metadata. Without this, Insomnia won't recognize the module as a plugin.
  "insomnia": {
    "name": "base64",                                                       // Internal Insomnia plugin name
    "displayName": "base64 Plugin",                                         // Plugin display name
    "description": "The base64 plugin encodes and decodes basic strings.",  // Plugin description

    // Optional plugin metadata

    // Plugin images for Plugin Hub and other interfaces
    "images": {
      // Plugin Icon
      // Suggested filetype: SVG (for scaling)
      // Suggested dimensions: 48x48
      "icon": "icon.svg", // relative path, relative to package root

      // Plugin Cover Image
      // Suggested filetype: SVG (for scaling)
      // Suggested dimensions: 952w x 398h
      "cover": "cover.svg", // relative path, relative to package root
    },

    // Force plugin hub and other entities to show specific author details
    // Useful for teams and organizations who work on the same plugin
    "publisher": {
      "name": "YOUR NAME HERE", // Plugin publisher name, displayed on plugin hub
      "icon": "https://...",    // Plugin publisher avatar or icon, absolute url
    },

    "unlisted": false // Set to true if this plugin should not be available on the Plugin Hub
  },

  // External dependencies are also supported
  "dependencies": [],
  "devDependencies": []
}

Manage Plugins

The Plugins tab in the Preferences menu enables the following functionality:

  • Add an existing plugin
  • Create a new plugin locally
  • Toggle a plugin to enable or disable it
  • Reveal the exact local plugin location on your machine

Note: Plugins can be downloaded and installed directly from the Insomnia Plugin Hub. Insomnia cannot make guarantees around the usability, maintenance, and security of third-party plugins.

Publish Plugins

Before you publish your plugin, ensure you have met the following criteria for your plugin to be recognized by Insomnia and be available on the Insomnia Plugin Hub.

Your plugin must:

  • Include a correctly structured package.json file containing the insomnia attribute. See Plugin package.json for more info.
  • Have a package name prefixed with insomnia-plugin-.
  • Be publicly available.

After you have verified that your plugin meets the criteria described above, publish your public plugin following the NPM publish unscoped public packages instructions. Publish an unscoped package to ensure it appears on the Insomnia Plugin Hub.

If your package does not show up on the Insomnia Plugin Hub after a few days, please contact us with the name of your plugin and a link to the published NPM package.

Publish Scoped Plugins

Insomnia can also use private (scoped) plugins. This commonly enables enterprise users to keep the plugin private from Insomnia.

To enable private (scoped) plugins:

  1. Navigate to the plugins directory in Application Data.
  2. Run npm install @scoped/plugin.

Debug in the Insomnia App

The Insomnia app enables debugging with Chrome DevTools. To open DevTools, click View then Toggle DevTools.

If you want to focus specifically on the plugin you are developing, you can find it from the Sources tab and/or filter the Console based on the plugin’s file name.

Template Tags

Refer to Template Tags for more information.

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