Common Plugin Terms

These docs use a small, consistent vocabulary. This page defines the core terms so the rest of the guides read clearly.

Core terms

• Plugin: the unit you build and load. It bundles a manifest, your code, and assets.
• Manifest (manifest.json): declares the plugin's identity, the hosts it targets, its permissions, and its entry points.
• Entry point: a declared way for the host to invoke your plugin, such as a panel or a command.
• Panel: an entry point that shows a persistent, dockable UI inside the host application.
• Command: an entry point, shown as a menu item, that runs an action without a persistent panel.
• Script: a single JavaScript file that automates the host through its APIs. A script has no manifest and no persistent panel. It is a separate artifact from a plugin.
• Host: the Adobe application your plugin runs in, such as Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, or Media Encoder.

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A brief history of the terminology

Over the years, Adobe Creative Cloud applications have supported ExtendScript Scripts, Flash Panels, CEP Extensions, and now UXP Plugins (either regular or hybrid) and UXP Scripts. Uniquely, Adobe Express deals with add-ons instead.

Many desktop applications also support compiled native plugins, such as effects in Premiere or filters in Photoshop. In these docs, plugin refers to a UXP plugin. It contains one or more panels or commands, and it is the successor to the CEP extension. This keeps the vocabulary consistent with the other Adobe applications that have moved, or are moving, to UXP. Scripts are a separate artifact, not a type of plugin.

Mapping from CEP and ExtendScript

If you've built extensions before, this is roughly how the old vocabulary maps to UXP:

The mapping is conceptual, not line for line. For the practical migration path, see Migrate from CEP and ExtendScript.