--- /dev/null
+# Extension conventions
+
+The Container Network Interface (CNI) currently provides two methods for passing additional information to plugins without needing to update the spec. These are the `CNI_ARGS` environment variable and the `args` field in the JSON config.
+
+Establishing these conventions allows plugins to work across multiple runtimes. This helps both plugins and the runtimes.
+
+## Plugins
+* Plugin authors should aim to support these conventions where it makes sense for their plugin. This means they are more likely to "just work" with a wider range of runtimes.
+
+## Runtimes
+* Runtime authors should follow these conventions if they want to pass additional information to plugins. This will allow the extra information to be consumed by the widest range of plugins.
+
+# Current conventions
+Additional conventions can be created by creating PRs which modify this document.
+
+## CNI_ARGS
+CNI_ARGS formed part of the original CNI spec and have been present since the initial release.
+> `CNI_ARGS`: Extra arguments passed in by the user at invocation time. Alphanumeric key-value pairs separated by semicolons; for example, "FOO=BAR;ABC=123"
+
+| Field | Purpose| Spec and Example | Runtime implementations | Plugin Implementations |
+| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
+| IP | Request a specific IP from IPAM plugins | IP=192.168.10.4 | *rkt* supports passing additional arguments to plugins and the [documentation](https://coreos.com/rkt/docs/latest/networking/overriding-defaults.html) suggests IP can be used. | host-local (since version v0.2.0) supports the field for IPv4 only - [documentation](https://github.com/containernetworking/cni/blob/master/Documentation/host-local.md#supported-arguments).|
+
+## "args" in network config
+`args` in [network config](https://github.com/containernetworking/cni/blob/master/SPEC.md#network-configuration) were introduced as an optional field into the `0.1.0` CNI spec. The first CNI code release that it appeared in was `v0.4.0`.
+> args (dictionary): Optional additional arguments provided by the container runtime. For example a dictionary of labels could be passed to CNI plugins by adding them to a labels field under args.
+
+`args` provide a way of providing more structured data than the flat strings that CNI_ARGS can support.
+
+The conventions documented here are all namepaced under `cni` so they don't conflict with any existing `args`.
+
+```json
+{
+ "cniVersion":"0.2.0",
+ "name":"net",
+ "args":{
+ "cni":{
+ "example":"value"
+ }
+ },
+ <REST OF CNI CONFIG HERE>
+ "ipam":{
+ <IPAM CONFIG HERE>
+ }
+}
+```
+
+| Area | Purpose| Spec and Example | Runtime implementations | Plugin Implementations |
+| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ | ------ |
+| labels | Pass`key=value` labels to plugins | <pre>"labels" : [<br /> { "key" : "app", "value" : "myapp" },<br /> { "key" : "env", "value" : "prod" }<br />] </pre> | none | none |
+| port mappings | Pass mapping from ports on the host to ports in the container network namespace. | <pre>"port_mappings" : [<br /> { "host_port": 8080, "container_port": 80, "protocol": "tcp" },<br /> { "host_port": 8000, "container_port": 8001, "protocol": "udp" }<br />] </pre> | none | none |