Plugins

This page describes how to install plugins into a Neo4j instance running inside a Docker container. For instructions about plugins in general see Configuration → Plugins.

Installing plugins

To install plugins, including user-defined procedures, mount the folder or volume containing the plugin JARs to /plugins, for example:

docker run \
   --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \
   neo4j:5.26.0

Neo4j automatically loads any plugins found in the /plugins folder on startup.

NEO4J_PLUGINS utility

The Neo4j Docker image includes a startup script that can automatically download and configure certain Neo4j plugins at runtime.

This feature is intended to facilitate the use of the Neo4j plugins in development environments, but it is not recommended for production environments.

To use plugins in production with Neo4j Docker containers, see Install user-defined procedures.

The NEO4J_PLUGINS environment variable can be used to specify the plugins to install using this method. This should be set to a JSON-formatted list of the supported plugins.

Running Bloom in a Docker container requires Neo4j Docker image 4.2.3-enterprise or later.

If invalid NEO4J_PLUGINS values are passed, Neo4j returns a notification that the plugin is not known. For example, --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["gds"]' returns the following notification:

Example output
"gds" is not a known Neo4j plugin. Options are:
apoc
apoc-extended
bloom
graph-data-science
graphql
n10s
Example 1. Install the APOC Core plugin (apoc)

You can use the Docker argument --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["apoc"]' and run the following command:

docker run -it --rm \
  --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=none \
  --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["apoc"]' \
  neo4j:5.26.0
Example 2. Install the APOC Core plugin (apoc) and the Graph Data Science plugin (graph-data-science)

You can use the Docker argument --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["apoc", "graph-data-science"]' and run the following command:

docker run -it --rm \
  --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=none \
  --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["apoc", "graph-data-science"]' \
  neo4j:5.26.0

Storing downloaded plugins

In situations where bandwidth is limited, or Neo4j is stopped and started frequently, it may be desirable to download plugins once and re-use them rather than downloading them each time.

By using the NEO4J_PLUGINS utility in combination with mounting storage to /plugins, the plugin jars are downloaded into the /plugins folder. This can then be used again later to supply the same plugins to Neo4j without needing to set NEO4J_PLUGINS.

Example 3. Example of automatically downloading and re-using plugins with docker.
Get the APOC plugin and save it into $HOME/neo4j/plugins
docker run -it --rm \
  --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=none \
  --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["apoc"]' \
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \ (1)
  neo4j:5.26.0
1 Mounts host folder $HOME/neo4j/plugins to /plugins.
Verify the apoc plugin is downloaded.
docker kill <containerID/name>
ls $HOME/neo4j/plugins
  apoc.jar
Start a new container and verify apoc is installed.
docker run -it --rm \
  --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
  --env NEO4J_AUTH=none \
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \
  neo4j:5.26.0

cypher-shell "RETURN apoc.version();"

Installing plugin licenses

If a plugin requires a license, the license file can be supplied to the container by mounting the folder or volume containing license file(s) to /licenses.

To check if the plugin requires a license, refer to the general plugin documentation.
Example 4. Installing plugins and licenses by mounting folders to the container
docker run \
   --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/plugins:/plugins \   (1)
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/licenses:/licenses \ (2)
   neo4j:5.26.0
1 folder containing plugin jars.
2 folder containing license files.

The licenses must also be provided if using the NEO4J_PLUGINS utility to install the plugins.

Example 5. Installing plugins and licenses by mounting folders to the container using NEO4J_PLUGINS utility
docker run \
   --publish=7474:7474 --publish=7687:7687 \
   --env NEO4J_PLUGINS='["bloom"]' \
   --volume=$HOME/neo4j/licenses:/licenses \ (1)
   neo4j:5.26.0
1 A folder containing license files.