diff --git a/cli-plugins/manager/metadata.go b/cli-plugins/manager/metadata.go
index 1df3c8e08f..d3de778141 100644
--- a/cli-plugins/manager/metadata.go
+++ b/cli-plugins/manager/metadata.go
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ const (
 	MetadataSubcommandName = "docker-cli-plugin-metadata"
 )
 
-// Metadata provided by the plugin
+// Metadata provided by the plugin. See docs/extend/cli_plugins.md for canonical information.
 type Metadata struct {
 	// SchemaVersion describes the version of this struct. Mandatory, must be "0.1.0"
 	SchemaVersion string `json:",omitempty"`
diff --git a/docs/extend/cli_plugins.md b/docs/extend/cli_plugins.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a99204ca58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/extend/cli_plugins.md
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+---
+description: "Writing Docker CLI Plugins"
+keywords: "docker, cli plugin"
+---
+
+<!-- This file is maintained within the docker/cli GitHub
+     repository at https://github.com/docker/cli/. Make all
+     pull requests against that repo. If you see this file in
+     another repository, consider it read-only there, as it will
+     periodically be overwritten by the definitive file. Pull
+     requests which include edits to this file in other repositories
+     will be rejected.
+-->
+
+# Docker CLI Plugin Spec
+
+The `docker` CLI supports adding additional top-level subcommands as
+additional out-of-process commands which can be installed
+independently. These plugins run on the client side and should not be
+confused with "plugins" which run on the server.
+
+This document contains information for authors of such plugins.
+
+## Requirements for CLI Plugins
+
+### Naming
+
+A valid CLI plugin name consists only of lower case letters `a-z`
+and the digits `0-9`. The leading character must be a letter. A valid
+name therefore would match the regex `^[a-z][a-z0-9]*$`.
+
+The binary implementing a plugin must be named `docker-$name` where
+`$name` is the name of the plugin. On Windows a `.exe` suffix is
+mandatory.
+
+## Required sub-commands
+
+A CLI plugin must support being invoked in at least these two ways:
+
+* `docker-$name docker-cli-plugin-metadata` -- outputs metadata about
+  the plugin.
+* `docker-$name [GLOBAL OPTIONS] $name [OPTIONS AND FURTHER SUB
+  COMMANDS]` -- the primary entry point to the plugin's functionality.
+
+A plugin may implement other subcommands but these will never be
+invoked by the current Docker CLI. However doing so is strongly
+discouraged: new subcommands may be added in the future without
+consideration for additional non-specified subcommands which may be
+used by plugins in the field.
+
+### The `docker-cli-plugin-metadata` subcommand
+
+When invoked in this manner the plugin must produce a JSON object
+(and nothing else) on its standard output and exit success (0).
+
+The JSON object has the following defined keys:
+* `SchemaVersion` (_string_) mandatory: must contain precisely "0.1.0".
+* `Vendor` (_string_) mandatory: contains the name of the plugin vendor/author. May be truncated to 11 characters in some display contexts.
+* `ShortDescription` (_string_) optional: a short description of the plugin, suitable for a single line help message.
+* `Version` (_string_) optional: the version of the plugin, this is considered to be an opaque string by the core and therefore has no restrictions on its syntax.
+* `URL` (_string_) optional: a pointer to the plugin's web page.
+
+A binary which does not correctly output the metadata
+(e.g. syntactically invalid, missing mandatory keys etc) is not
+considered a valid CLI plugin and will not be run.
+
+### The primary entry point subcommand
+
+This is the entry point for actually running the plugin. It maybe have
+options or further subcommands.
+
+#### Required global options
+
+A plugin is required to support all of the global options of the
+top-level CLI, i.e. those listed by `man docker 1` with the exception
+of `-v`.
+
+## Installation
+
+Plugins distributed in packages for system wide installation on
+Unix(-like) systems should be installed in either
+`/usr/lib/docker/cli-plugins` or `/usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins`
+depending on which of `/usr/lib` and `/usr/libexec` is usual on that
+system. System Administrators may also choose to manually install into
+the `/usr/local/lib` or `/usr/local/libexec` equivalents but packages
+should not do so.
+
+Plugins distributed on Windows for system wide installation should be
+installed in `%PROGRAMDATA%\Docker\cli-plugins`.
+
+User's may on all systems install plugins into `~/.docker/cli-plugins`.
+
+## Implementing a plugin in Go
+
+When writing a plugin in Go the easiest way to meet the above
+requirements is to simply call the
+`github.com/docker/cli/cli-plugins/plugin.Run` method from your `main`
+function to instantiate the plugin.