diff --git a/doc/source/plugin.rst b/doc/source/plugin.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e97dbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/plugin.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+=============================
+Tempest Test Plugin Interface
+=============================
+
+Tempest has an external test plugin interface which enables anyone to integrate
+an external test suite as part of a tempest run. This will let any project
+leverage being run with the rest of the tempest suite while not requiring the
+tests live in the tempest tree.
+
+Creating a plugin
+=================
+
+Creating a plugin is fairly straightforward and doesn't require much additional
+effort on top of creating a test suite using tempest-lib. One thing to note with
+doing this is that the interfaces exposed by tempest are not considered stable
+(with the exception of configuration variables which ever effort goes into
+ensuring backwards compatibility). You should not need to import anything from
+tempest itself except where explicitly noted. If there is an interface from
+tempest that you need to rely on in your plugin it likely needs to be migrated
+to tempest-lib. In that situation, file a bug, push a migration patch, etc. to
+expedite providing the interface in a reliable manner.
+
+Plugin Class
+------------
+
+To provide tempest with all the required information it needs to be able to run
+your plugin you need to create a plugin class which tempest will load and call
+to get information when it needs. To simplify creating this tempest provides an
+abstract class that should be used as the parent for your plugin. To use this
+you would do something like the following::
+
+  from tempest.test_discover import plugin
+
+  class MyPlugin(plugin.TempestPlugin):
+
+Then you need to ensure you locally define all of the methods in the abstract
+class, you can refer to the api doc below for a reference of what that entails.
+
+Also, note eventually this abstract class will likely live in tempest-lib, when
+that migration occurs a deprecation shim will be added to tempest so as to not
+break any existing plugins. But, when that occurs migrating to using tempest-lib
+as the source for the abstract class will be prudent.
+
+Abstract Plugin Class
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.. autoclass:: tempest.test_discover.plugins.TempestPlugin
+   :members:
+
+Entry Point
+-----------
+
+Once you've created your plugin class you need to add an entry point to your
+project to enable tempest to find the plugin. The entry point must be added
+to the "tempest.test_plugins" namespace.
+
+If you are using pbr this is fairly straightforward, in the setup.cfg just add
+something like the following::
+
+  [entry_points]
+  tempest.test_plugins =
+      plugin_name = module.path:PluginClass
+
+Plugin Structure
+----------------
+
+While there are no hard and fast rules for the structure a plugin, there are
+basically no constraints on what the plugin looks like as long as the 2 steps
+above are done. However,  there are some recommended patterns to follow to make
+it easy for people to contribute and work with your plugin. For example, if you
+create a directory structure with something like::
+
+    plugin_dir/
+      config.py
+      plugin.py
+      tests/
+        api/
+        scenario/
+      services/
+        client.py
+
+That will mirror what people expect from tempest. The file
+
+* **config.py**: contains any plugin specific configuration variables
+* **plugin.py**: contains the plugin class used for the entry point
+* **tests**: the directory where test discovery will be run, all tests should
+             be under this dir
+* **services**: where the plugin specific service clients are
+
+Additionally, when you're creating the plugin you likely want to follow all
+of the tempest developer and reviewer documentation to ensure that the tests
+being added in the plugin act and behave like the rest of tempest.
+
+Using Plugins
+=============
+
+Tempest will automatically discover any installed plugins when it is run. So by
+just installing the python packages which contain your plugin you'll be using
+them with tempest, nothing else is really required.
+
+However, you should take care when installing plugins. By their very nature
+there are no guarantees when running tempest with plugins enabled about the
+quality of the plugin. Additionally, while there is no limitation on running
+with multiple plugins it's worth noting that poorly written plugins might not
+properly isolate their tests which could cause unexpected cross interactions
+between plugins.
+
+Notes for using plugins with virtualenvs
+----------------------------------------
+
+When using a tempest inside a virtualenv (like when running under tox) you have
+to ensure that the package that contains your plugin is either installed in the
+venv too or that you have system site-packages enabled. The virtualenv will
+isolate the tempest install from the rest of your system so just installing the
+plugin package on your system and then running tempest inside a venv will not
+work.
+
+Tempest also exposes a tox job, all-plugin, which will setup a tox virtualenv
+with system site-packages enabled. This will let you leverage tox without
+requiring to manually install plugins in the tox venv before running tests.