Repository Management with Nexus
21.9. The Nexus Plugin Descriptor

Every Nexus plugin has a plugin descriptor which is generated during the build process for a plugin. This plugin descriptor is packaged with the plugin JAR and can be found in $basedir/target/classes/META-INF/nexus/plugin.xml

A Nexus Plugin Descriptor. 

<plugin>
  <modelVersion>1.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>org.sonatype.sample</groupId>
  <artifactId>sample-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>Nexus Plugin Archetype</name>
  <applicationId>nexus</applicationId>
  <applicationEdition>OSS</applicationEdition>
  <applicationMinVersion>1.4.0</applicationMinVersion>
</plugin>

If your Nexus plugin has any dependencies, they will be included in this plugin descriptor automatically. For example, if the Nexus plugin you were developing had a dependency on commons-beanutils version 1.8.2, your plugin descriptor will include the following classpathDependency

<plugin>
  <modelVersion>1.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>org.sonatype.book.nexus</groupId>
  <artifactId>sample-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  <name>Nexus Plugin Archetype</name>
  <applicationId>nexus</applicationId>
  <applicationEdition>OSS</applicationEdition>
  <applicationMinVersion>1.4.0</applicationMinVersion>
  <classpathDependencies>
    <classpathDependency>
      <groupId>commons-beanutils</groupId>
      <artifactId>commons-beanutils</artifactId>
      <version>1.8.2</version>
      <type>jar</type>
    </classpathDependency>
  </classpathDependencies>
</plugin>