Adding Plugins

Plugins are custom, user-built plays that define what gets installed and configured on each machine during the build. A Domain Controller plugin installs Active Directory, a vulnerability plugin plants an exploitable service, a file copy plugin moves files onto the machine — and so on.

Entering Machine Edit Mode

To manage plugins on a machine, double-click the machine node on the canvas. This enters machine edit mode, where:

The left sidebar switches to show plugin categories
The main panel shows the machine’s current plugin list (the build sequence)
You can drag plugins from the sidebar into the build sequence

Plugin Categories

Plugins are organized into categories in the sidebar:

Architect machine-edit view with the Actions plugin category open in the left sidebar — File Copy, Remove Windows Defender, Run Powershell Script, Auto Log User Into Machine, Join Windows Machine to Domain, Restart Windows Machine, and more Left sidebar showing the Actions category open — drag any of these tiles onto the machine’s build sequence on the right. Categories are listed down the icon rail (Help, Actions, Vulns, Attack, Defense, Roles, Apps, Copy Files).

Category	Description
Actions	General configuration tasks (domain joins, user creation, network config)
Vulnerabilities	Deliberately vulnerable services and misconfigurations
Attack	Offensive tools and payloads
Defense	Defensive tools, monitoring, and hardening
Roles	System roles (Domain Controller, DNS Server, Web Server)
Apps	Applications and services
Copy Files	File transfer operations from your vault to the machine

Adding a Plugin

Browse plugin categories in the sidebar, or use the search
Find the plugin you want
Drag it from the sidebar onto the build sequence area
The plugin appears in the machine’s build pipeline

After adding a plugin, the system may run auto-apply automations — plugin-level rules that automatically fill in VLAN or machine configuration based on the plugin’s known requirements.

These are tested baseline sets so you don’t have to guess at resource sizing or networking. Examples:

Adding a Domain Controller — auto-recommends 2 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores, sets static IP on the VLAN, and configures DNS forwarding back to the DC for that VLAN’s FQDN
Adding an Elastic server — auto-recommends 12 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores (Elasticsearch is hungry), reserves static IP
Adding a workstation — auto-recommends 4 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores

You can override any auto-applied value in the machine’s Edit panel — the automations just give you a working baseline so the build doesn’t fall over from underprovisioning on day one.

Plugin Sequence

Plugins run top-to-bottom in the order they appear. This is the single most important thing to internalize when building a machine — ordering wrong = a broken build.

Build sequence pane showing the ordered plugin chain on chi-ws22: Remove Defender, Join Domain, Set UI Performance (inside a drag group), Auto Log User, two File Copy steps, Auto Execute, and Mount Student Share Build sequence on chi-ws22 — Defender comes off first, then the domain join, then the auto-login, then files land on the user’s desktop. Each step depends on the one above it.

A few classic ordering rules:

Domain Join before Auto Log User Into Machine — the user has to be a domain user before auto-login can pick them up
Auto Login before File Copy onto the desktop — C:\Users\<user>\Desktop\ only exists once the user profile has been created at first login
Remove Defender before installing attacker tooling — otherwise AV nukes the binaries during install
Service installs before configuration plugins that depend on them (e.g. install SQL before seeding it with a payload)

Additional tips:

Reorder by drag — grab any plugin and drop it where it belongs in the sequence; the surrounding items reflow automatically
Trash on the fly — during a drag, a floating trash can appears; drop a plugin onto it to remove it without leaving the sequence
Dependency-aware grouping — DRAG GROUPs mark plugin dependencies; if a plugin you add needs prerequisites, Architect auto-pulls them in and groups them so they always move as one unit

File Storage and Copy

The Copy Files feature lets you upload arbitrary content to a machine’s vault and then copy it to specific paths during the build. It’s one of the highest-leverage features in Architect for two reasons:

Push scripts to run on hosts — drop PowerShell, Bash, or batch scripts into the vault, copy them into place, and chain a Run Powershell Script / Run Bash Script plugin to execute them. Custom on-host setup without writing a full plugin.
Seed realistic file content across user profiles — populate Desktop, Documents, Downloads, browser caches, mailboxes, network shares, and any other path you want with believable artifacts. This is the single biggest lever for making a lab feel like a real environment vs. a sterile sandbox.

The flow:

Upload files and folders to the machine’s unique vault using the Manage Files button
Drag the Copy Files control from the sidebar into the build sequence
Click the copy files card to configure source and destination paths

Copy Files panel open on the left of the Architect machine view, showing the three-step Operations Guide (Upload Files, Add Copy Commands, Configure Each Copy) alongside the build sequence on the right with a Copy Files step in it Copy Files panel — Manage Files at the top to upload into the machine vault, then drag the Copy Files tile into the build sequence and click it to set source and destination paths.

Plugin Snapshots

Each plugin in the build sequence has a snapshot toggle (camera icon). When enabled, the build system takes a VM snapshot before executing that plugin. If the plugin fails, you can revert to that snapshot and try again without rebuilding everything from scratch.

The Plugin Browser

For a wider view of everything available, open the Plugin Browser from the Rogue Architect home screen. It lists every plugin in your library with search, filtering, and sort controls — useful when you want to browse the full catalog instead of category-by-category from inside a machine.

Plugin Browser page showing a search bar, filter and sort controls, and a grid of plugin tiles including File Copy, Run Powershell Script, Domain Controllers, attack machines, and apps The Plugin Browser — search by name, filter by category/OS/ownership, and sort to find the right plugin across the whole library.

You can drag plugins from the in-machine sidebar in edit mode, but the browser is where you go to discover what’s available before committing to one.

Need a Plugin That Doesn’t Exist?

Two options when the library doesn’t cover what you need — click to learn more:

Have Claude build it

The /rogue-plugin-brainstorm and /rogue-plugin-develop skills walk you through researching the install approach, scaffolding the project, and shipping a working plugin without leaving your terminal.

Claude MCP for plugin dev

Build it yourself

Author custom plugins by hand. They appear in the browser and sidebar alongside the built-in ones, fully reusable across every scenario.

Plugin Development