Extending Sentinel

NOTE: Sentinel's extensibility is currently undergoing large improvements - watch this space for future updates!

Sentinel can be extended by writing additional imports. These imports can bring new functionality to Sentinel by allowing access to new data or by the addition of new functions. This section is designed to show you how to accomplish this extensibility and describe how it works.

Currently, the only usable way to add additional imports is via modules. While plugins currently work under the Sentinel CLI, no Sentinel integration currently supports their use.

You may also be interested in advanced details on import internals.

Modules

Modules allow you to re-use Sentinel code as an import. Modules are loaded external of policies and mapped to imports. This is usually configured via a file such as the CLI configuration file.

See the modules section for more details.

Plugins

NOTE: Plugins are currently only supported on the CLI and not in any production Sentinel integration, with the exception of existing configuration in Nomad.

Imports can also be implemented as plugins when Sentinel code itself is too restrictive to represent the import, or if you need access to features not normally available to the Sentinel runtime.

See the plugins section for more details.

Static Imports

Static imports provide support for loading data files into the Sentinel runtime, making them available as an import.

See the static imports section for more details.