How to install ElasticSeach plugins using docker compose

Here is a blog post by Elastic pertaining to exactly that! You need to use a Dockerfile which executes commands to extend an image. Your Dockerfile will look something like this:

FROM custom_elasticsearch_1RUN plugin install royrusso/elasticsearch-HQ

Inspired by @NickPridorozhko's answer, but updated and tested with elasticsearch^7.0.0 (with docker stack / swarm), example with analysis-icu:

elasticsearch:  image: docker.elastic.co/elasticsearch/elasticsearch:7.3.0  user: elasticsearch  command: >    /bin/sh -c "./bin/elasticsearch-plugin list | grep -q analysis-icu     || ./bin/elasticsearch-plugin install analysis-icu;     /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh"  ...

The main difference are the updated commands for ^7.0.0, and the use of the docker entrypoint instead of ./bin/elasticsearch (in a stack's context, you'd get an error related to a limit of spawnable processes).

This works for me. Install plugin before and then continue with starting the elasticsearch.

elasticsearch:  image: elasticsearch  command:    - sh    - -c    - "plugin list | grep -q plugin_name || plugin install plugin_name;       /docker-entrypoint.sh elasticsearch"