Building RR with a custom plugin

Developers can take advantage of the customization options available with RoadRunner to create a server optimized for their particular project.

This can include:

• Adding custom plugins.

• Forking existing ones to make changes.

• Building a lightweight server with only the necessary plugins.

We created a tool called Velox that lets developers build a RoadRunner server binary. It uses a configuration file to determine which plugins and repositories are required for building a RoadRunner server binary.

Configuration

The configuration file is written in TOML format and contains a list of repositories to add to the build. For each repository, you can specify the owner and version. You can also add private repositories from GitHub or Gitlab, and authenticate with access tokens.

To download all the required plugins for RoadRunner, you need a GitHub token. If you try to download plugins without a token, anonymous access is limited to 50 requests per hour. You can read more about these limits on the Rate limits for GitHub Apps page.

Here is an example of a configuration file:

velox.toml

[roadrunner]
# ref -> reference, tag, commit or branch
ref = "master"

# the debug option is used to build RR with debug symbols to profile it with pprof
[debug]
enabled = true

[github]
[github.token]
token = "${RT_TOKEN}"

# ref -> master, commit or tag
[github.plugins]
# LOGS
appLogger = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "app-logger" }
logger = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "logger" }
lock = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "lock" }
rpc = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "rpc" }

# CENTRIFUGE BROADCASTING PLATFORM
centrifuge = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "centrifuge" }

# WORKFLOWS ENGINE
temporal = { ref = "v5.1.0", owner = "temporalio", repository = "roadrunner-temporal" }

# METRICS
metrics = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "metrics" }

# HTTP + MIDDLEWARE
http = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "http" }
gzip = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "gzip" }
prometheus = { ref = "v5.0.1", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "prometheus" }
headers = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "headers" }
static = { ref = "v5.0.1", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "static" }
proxy = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "proxy_ip_parser" }
send = { ref = "v5.0.1", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "send" }

# OpenTelemetry
otel = { ref = "v5.0.1", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "otel" }

# SERVER
server = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "server" }

# SERVICE aka lightweit systemd
service = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "service" }

# JOBS
jobs = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "jobs" }
amqp = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "amqp" }
sqs = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "sqs" }
beanstalk = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "beanstalk" }
nats = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "nats" }
kafka = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "kafka" }
googlepubsub = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "google-pub-sub" }

# KV
kv = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "kv" }
boltdb = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "boltdb" }
memory = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "memory" }
redis = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "redis" }
memcached = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "memcached" }

# FILESERVER (static files)
fileserver = { ref = "v5.0.1", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "fileserver" }

# gRPC plugin
grpc = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "grpc" }

# HEALTHCHECKS + READINESS CHECKS
status = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "status" }

# TCP for the RAW TCP PAYLOADS
tcp = { ref = "v5.0.2", owner = "roadrunner-server", repository = "tcp" }

[gitlab]
[gitlab.token]
# api, read-api, read-repo
token = "${GL_TOKEN}"

[gitlab.endpoint]
endpoint = "https://gitlab.com"

[gitlab.plugins]
# ref -> master, commit or tag
test_plugin_1 = { ref = "main", owner = "rustatian", repository = "36405203" }
test_plugin_2 = { ref = "main", owner = "rustatian", repository = "36405235" }

[log]
level = "info"
mode = "production"

You can find the latest version of the example configuration file in the official repository.

When using official plugins for RoadRunner, it is recommended avoid using the master branch as it may contain unstable code. Instead, use tags with the same major version (e.g., logger:v4.x.x + amqp:v4.x.x, but not logger:v4.0.0 + amqp:v3.0.5). Please note that the currently supported plugin version is v5.x.x, and the supported RoadRunner version is >=v2024.2.x.

Failure to follow these guidelines may result in compatibility issues and other problems. Please pay close attention to your configuration file to ensure proper use of plugins.

You can use environment variables in the configuration file. This is useful when you want to keep the configuration file in the repository, but you don't want to expose your tokens or just want to pass them as arguments to the vx command.

Here is the list of environment variables from the example above:

Variable	Description
${GL_TOKEN}	GitLab token.
${RT_TOKEN}	GitHub token.
${VERSION}	RR version to write into the binary (will be shown with ./rr --version).
${TIME}	Build time (will be shown with ./rr --version).

Keep in mind to set the latest stable version in the ${VERSION} env variable. You may also use ${TIME} env variable to write the build time in the output binary.

Options

Option	Description
ref	Tag, commit hash or branch name.
owner	Repository owner (might be the user or organization).
repository	Repository name.
folder	If the plugin is in some folder in your repository, you may specify it via this configuration option. For example: cache = { ref = "v1.6.18", owner = "darkweak", repository = "souin", folder="plugins/roadrunner" }
replace	Go.mod replace directive.

To replace the module with the local copy or some remote module, use the following velox.toml configuration:

velox.toml

your_module = { ref = "master", owner = "owner", repository = "repo", replace="github.com/owner2/repo2" }

Or with your local copy:

velox.toml

your_module = { ref = "master", owner = "owner", repository = "repo", replace="../path/to/a/local/dir" }

Private repositories

• Make sure the ssh-agent is running and the ssh key has been added: link
• Exclude your organization package prefix from the Go environment variables:

go env -w GOPRIVATE="github.com/<company_name>/*,gitlab.com/<company_name>/*"
go env -w GONOSUMDB="github.com/<company_name>/*,gitlab.com/<company_name>/*"

Building

Docker

Using the Docker image simplifies the build process by automatically building the RoadRunner binary and storing it in the /usr/bin/ folder. This eliminates the need to install Golang or other dependencies on your computer. Once the build is complete, Docker will automatically start the RoadRunner server.

Here is an example of Dockerfile:

Dockerfile

# https://docs.docker.com/buildx/working-with-buildx/
# TARGETPLATFORM if not empty OR linux/amd64 by default
FROM --platform=${TARGETPLATFORM:-linux/amd64} ghcr.io/roadrunner-server/velox:latest as velox

# app version and build date must be passed during image building (version without any prefix).
# e.g.: `docker build --build-arg "APP_VERSION=1.2.3" --build-arg "BUILD_TIME=$(date +%FT%T%z)" .`
ARG APP_VERSION="undefined"
ARG BUILD_TIME="undefined"

# copy your configuration into the docker
COPY velox.toml .

# we don't need CGO
ENV CGO_ENABLED=0

# RUN build
RUN vx build -c velox.toml -o /usr/bin/

FROM --platform=${TARGETPLATFORM:-linux/amd64} php:8.3-cli

# copy required files from builder image
COPY --from=velox /usr/bin/rr /usr/bin/rr

# use roadrunner binary as image entrypoint
CMD ["/usr/bin/rr"]

Go

You can use the go install command to download Velox.

To download Velox and build an application server you need Golang 1.22+ on you local server.

go install

go install github.com/roadrunner-server/velox/v2025/cmd/vx@latest

After the binary has been downloaded, you can build the application server:

vx build

vx build -c velox.toml -o ~/Downloads

Option	Description
-c	path to the configuration
-o	path where to put the RR binary

Downloading Binary

To build the application server, you need to download Velox binary the GitHub releases page and unpack it to your PATH.

To build an application server you need Golang 1.22+ on you local server.

After the binary has been downloaded, you can build the application server:

vx build

vx build -c velox.toml -o ~/Downloads

Option	Description
-c	path to the configuration
-o	path where to put the RR binary

Video tutorials

How to write a plugin

v2023.x.x update

Velox configuration

Third-party and deprecated plugins

• souin, third-party
• reload, deprecated

Known limitation

• At the moment only GitHub and GitLab repositories are supported.