Deploy and release using the Flex Plugins CLI
The twilio flex:plugins:deploy
command automates the process of uploading your plugin to Flex. This allows you to deploy your plugins via the command line, without needing to manually upload them using a GUI. After a deploy, your plugin is not yet enabled for all your users on your Flex application. You need to run the release
command after the deploy to enable any changes.
The twilio flex:plugins:release
command is used to change which plugins are live for your users. You can group multiple plugins into a release, and you can re-activate any prior release to rollback changes.
This guide includes examples for deploying and releasing your Flex plugins.
Compatible CLI versions
You need to install the latest version of the Flex Plugins CLI in order to use these features. If you're migrating a legacy plugin to use the new CLI, refer to our Migration Guide.
Deploying a major version of a plugin
twilio flex:plugins:deploy --major --changelog "Notes for this version" --description "Functionality of the plugin"
The deploy
command does the following:
- It publishes your plugin as a Private Asset that is accessible by the Functions & Assets API. If you want to deploy your plugin as a Public Asset, you may pass
--public
to yourdeploy
command. - It registers a new version of the plugin via the Plugins API. For the example above, the
--major
flag is passed. This creates a new major version of the plugin (ex: v1 to v2), and it stores the provided changelog along with your new version. If a version option (major
,minor
, orpatch
) is not provided, thedeploy
command defaults to a new patch version. - It updates the version field in the
package.json
of your plugin to the new version. - If the plugin is being deployed the first time, it also registers it as a new plugin with the provided description. The
description
option does not need to be provided on additional deploys.
Creating a new release
Releasing plugins is a two-step process using the Plugins API.
- You create a Flex Plugin Configuration. This contains the list of plugins you want active and their versions.
- You create a Flex Release with the configuration created in the previous step.
The Plugins CLI release
command combines both of these steps to simplify the most common scenarios.
A) One-step release
You can create a release by listing each of the plugins that should be active for your users:
twilio flex:plugins:release --plugin example-plugin@1.0.0 --plugin additional-plugin@2.1.0 --name "Example 1" --description "Demonstrating use of twilio flex:plugins:release"
The release
command does the following:
- It creates a Flex Plugin Configuration resource using the Plugins API with all of the provided arguments.
- It creates a Flex Release resource for the Configuration that was just created.
When constructing a new release:
- The
--plugin
argument takes the plugin you want to enable in the format plugin-name@version. Multiple plugins can be grouped into a release by using--plugin
for each plugin that should be enabled. - We recommend setting the
--name
and--description
options. These can be used to describe what changed within this release, and these details will be displayed within the Plugins Dashboard. These are a useful reference when reviewing your release history or choosing to re-deploy a prior release.
B) Separating your configuration and release
A new configuration does not need to be immediately released to users. You can instead create a configuration first and then pass in a reference to the configuration when creating a release. This is similar to the process you'll use to re-deploy a prior release.
First, create a new Flex Plugin Configuration:
twilio flex:plugins:create-configuration --name "Example config1" --description "Testing new plugins" --plugin plugin-test-example@1.0.0 --plugin <additional-plugin-name>@<version>
This command will create a new configuration and return the SID of your new resource. You can lookup the SID of a configuration by running:
twilio flex:plugins:list:configurations
Finally, create a new Release with your provided Flex Plugin Configuration:
twilio flex:plugins:release --configuration-sid <Configuration Sid>
Releasing multiple plugins
By default, the release
and create-configuration
commands will merge the list of plugins you provide with the plugins that are on the active configuration. This behavior can be changed with the --new
argument. Suppose you have two plugins live: plugin-alpha@1.0.1
and plugin-beta@2.1.1
. A new v1.1.0 version of plugin-alpha
has been deployed, and you are creating a new release:
Without --new (default)
twilio flex:plugins:release --plugin plugin-alpha@1.1.0 --name "Bumping Alpha" --description "Alpha and Beta both up-to-date"
In this release, plugin-alpha
is updated to the version provided in the command. plugin-beta
stays enabled on the active version.
With --new
twilio flex:plugins:release --new --plugin plugin-alpha@1.1.0 --name "Removing Beta" --description "Bumping Alpha and disabling Beta"
In this release, only the provided plugins are added to this release's configuration. The end result will be that only plugin-alpha
is enabled.
The --new
argument must be used if you are disabling a plugin that is on the active configuration.
Managing multiple accounts
The Flex Plugins CLI uses your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token to deploy your plugins.
If you are deploying your plugins to multiple accounts, you will need to provide credentials for each account. You can create multiple profiles using the Twilio CLI to store multiple credentials, and then pass them through to your commands in a few ways:
Use a Profile Name
Let's say you have created a profile called stage
. You can pass the profile name in the deploy
command to use the designated account.
twilio flex:plugins:deploy -p stage
Switch Profiles
Alternatively, you may switch which profile is active using the Twilio CLI's profiles
command. To see the full list of local profiles and choose a new active profile, run:
twilio profiles:list
twilio profiles:use <profile_name>
Environment Variables
New pairs of AccountSid and AuthToken credentials may also be provided as environment variables with the deploy
command:
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=ACxxx TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=abc123 twilio flex:plugins:deploy
This will use the provided credentials and save them in the keychain. If you have multiple accounts saved and you do not provide credentials along with your deploy
command, then you will be prompted to select one:
? Select from one of the following Account Sids (Use arrow keys)
❯ AC0000000000000000000000000000000
AC0000000000000000000000000000001
AC0000000000000000000000000000002
You can use the above commands to tie plugin deployment into a CI/CD pipeline. For example:
#!/bin/bash
# This script runs within your plugin directory
npm install
npm run test
npm run lint
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=ACXXXX TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=pass123 twilio flex:plugins:deploy
Make sure to handle your AccountSid and Auth Token as environment variables or arguments passed into your scripts.
Next Steps
- Learn about other common use cases for the Plugins CLI
- Start building your first Plugin
- Learn about the underlying Plugins API
Need some help?
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