> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.fluentd.org/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.fluentd.org/plugin-helper-overview.md).

# Plugin Helper API

Fluentd provides plugin helpers to encapsulate and make commonly implemented features available such as timer, threading, formatting, parsing, ensuring configuration syntax's backward compatibility, etc.

## How To Use

To use plugin helpers, call `helpers(*snake_case_symbols)` method to make them available.

Example:

```ruby
helpers :timer, :storage, :compat_parameters
```

It will include `Timer`, `Storage`, and `CompatParameters` plugin helpers.

## Built-in Plugin Helpers

* [`child_process`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-child_process.md)
* [`compat_parameters`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-compat_parameters.md)
* [`event_emitter`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-event_emitter.md)
* [`event_loop`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-event_loop.md)
* [`extract`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-extract.md)
* [`formatter`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-formatter.md)
* [`inject`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-inject.md)
* [`metrics`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-metrics.md)
* [`parser`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-parser.md)
* [`record_accessor`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-record_accessor.md)
* [`server`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-server.md)
* [`socket`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-socket.md)
* [`storage`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-storage.md)
* [`thread`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-thread.md)
* [`timer`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-timer.md)
* [`http_server`](/plugin-helper-overview/api-plugin-helper-http_server.md)

If this article is incorrect or outdated, or omits critical information, please [let us know](https://github.com/fluent/fluentd-docs-gitbook/issues?state=open). [Fluentd](http://www.fluentd.org/) is an open-source project under [Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)](https://cncf.io/). All components are available under the Apache 2 License.