ckeditor5-package-generator

CKEditor 5 Package Generator

The ckeditor5-package-generator is a tool dedicated for developers. It creates a working package with the development environment that allows for developing plugins for CKEditor 5.

Table of contents

• Requirements
• Creating a package
  • Modifiers
• What's next?

Requirements

The minimal version of Node.js required by CKEditor 5 is 18.

While not necessary, it is also nice to have the latest version of yarn 1.x or pnpm installed globally.

Creating a package

To create a new package without installing the tool, simply execute the following command:

npx ckeditor5-package-generator <packageName> [--use-npm] [--use-yarn] [--use-pnpm] [--installation-methods <current|current-and-legacy>] [--plugin-name <...>] [--lang <js|ts>] [--global-name <...>] [--verbose]

The <packageName> argument is required and must follow these rules:

• The provided name must match the schema: @scope/ckeditor5-*, where @scope is the owner of the package.
• The package name must start with the ckeditor5- prefix.
• Allowed characters are numbers (0-9), lowercase letters (a-z) and the following symbols: - . _.

If you want the plugin name to be different from the package name, you can use the --plugin-name modifier that must follow these rules:

• It cannot start with a number.
• The only allowed characters are numbers (0-9), lowercase and uppercase letters (A-z) and the underscore (_).

As a result of executing the command, a new directory with a package in it will be created. The directory's name will be equal to the specified package name without the @scope part, and it will contain an example plugin and the development environment.

Modifiers

• --use-npm – use npm to install dependencies in a newly created package.
• --use-yarn – use yarn to install dependencies in a newly created package.
• --use-pnpm – use pnpm to install dependencies in a newly created package.
• --installation-methods – (values: current | current-and-legacy) choose which installation methods of CKEditor 5 do you want to support? If omitted, the script will ask the user to choose manually.
• --global-name – define a global name of the package to be used in UMD build.
• --plugin-name – define a class name to be different from the package name.
• --lang – (values: js | ts) choose whether the created package should use JavaScript or TypeScript. If omitted, the script will ask the user to choose it manually.
• --verbose – (alias: -v) print additional logs about the current executed task.

What's next

Once the package is created, you are ready to start developing new CKEditor 5 features. You can check out these helpfull guides, too:

• Find out what is available inside your package depending on the language you used:
  • JavaScript.
  • TypeScript.
• How to create a simple plugin for CKEditor 5.
• Introduction to CKEditor 5 architecture.

Changelog

4.1.0 (September 16, 2025)

Features

• generator: Added comprehensive support for pnpm alongside existing npm and yarn options in the CKEditor 5 package generator. Closes #247.

  You can now use the --use-pnpm CLI flag to specify pnpm as your package manager when generating a new package.

Released packages

Check out the Versioning policy guide for more information.

<details> <summary>Released packages (summary)</summary>

Releases containing new features:

• ckeditor5-package-generator: v4.0.2 => v4.1.0

Other releases:

• @ckeditor/ckeditor5-package-tools: v4.0.2 => v4.1.0

</details>