[LFX Mentorship T-2 2026] Plugin Development Book, Documentation, and Community Growth

[rahulshendre]

Overview

This issue tracks the LFX Mentorship Term 2 2026 project focused on delivering a practical PipeCD Plugin Development Book as the primary outcome, with targeted adoption work across docs experience, technical content, and community growth.

Background

PipeCD's pipedv1/plugin ecosystem is expanding quickly. Community discussions repeatedly highlighted the need for a structured, hands-on learning path for plugin contributors as well as maintainers, plus better discoverability and contributor
enablement around docs.

Primary Goal

Translate and publish the PipeCD Plugin Development Book (chapter-based, practical, maintainable):

• Beginner-to-implementation progression
• Real examples aligned with current plugin architecture
• Contributor-focused workflows and references
• Video guides around the same

Secondary Goals

1. Docs Experience (DX)

• Improve plugin/onboarding docs flow and discoverability
• Prioritize high-impact UX improvements discussed by the community:
  • Docs live preview workflow
  • Dark mode/theming consistency
  • Navigation and minor bug fixes

2. Technical Content

• Produce focused support content tied to book chapters:
  • Walkthrough videos (target: 2–4)
  • Practical blogs/tutorials
• Reuse workflow: book/docs → blog → short video → social snippet

3. Talks and Outreach

• Submit talks to relevant meetups/events
• Target: submit multiple CFPs, deliver talks where accepted
• Track accepted/given talks as adoption outcomes

4. Contributor Growth

• Implement Contributor Ladder and recognition flow (with maintainers discussion)
• Encourage contribution pathways from docs/content/community touchpoints

Tracking and Reporting

• Public tracking via issue checklist / project board
• Bi-weekly updates with mentors/community sync
• Monthly KPI snapshot, including:
  • Book chapters published
  • Docs PRs merged
  • Videos/blogs shipped
  • Talk CFPs submitted / accepted / delivered

Expected Outcomes

• Publishable Plugin Development Book in PipeCD docs
• Improved first-time contributor and adopter experience
• Better docs usability and content discoverability

Mentors

• Eeshaan Sawant @eeshaanSA
• Khanh Tran @khanhtc1202

Timeline

In accordance with the LFX Mentorship Term 2 2026 timeline.

Other Resources

• Check out Make and Learn PipeCD Plugins by @Warashi here
• Join the PipeCD Slack Channel on the CNCF Slack here

Interested in contributing as an LFX Mentee? Submit your application to the LFX Mentorship portal before the deadline!

[sridhar-panigrahi]

Hey @eeshaansawant @khanhtc1202 , thanks for tagging this as LFX Mentorship 🙌

Really excited about this project — the plugin book idea is something the community
has been needing for a while.

Before the applications open, I'd like to start contributing. Looking through the repo
I noticed the Plugins docs page (docs/content/en/docs-v1.0.x/plugins/_index.md) is
just a placeholder right now. Would it help if I drafted an "Introduction to PipeCD
Plugins" page — short intro to what plugins are, the deployment vs stage types, and a
directory of what already exists?

Happy to share an outline first so I'm not going in a different direction from the
book you've already planned. Also totally open to any other starter task you'd rather
point me at.

Thanks!
— Shridhar