diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
index fff6082b3e5..e62175b743e 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/ClusterFormationTasks.groovy
@@ -525,7 +525,7 @@ class ClusterFormationTasks {
         }
     }
 
-    static String pluginTaskName(String action, String name, String suffix) {
+    public static String pluginTaskName(String action, String name, String suffix) {
         // replace every dash followed by a character with just the uppercase character
         String camelName = name.replaceAll(/-(\w)/) { _, c -> c.toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT) }
         return action + camelName[0].toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT) + camelName.substring(1) + suffix
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/MessyTestPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/MessyTestPlugin.groovy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1cca2c5aa49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/gradle/test/MessyTestPlugin.groovy
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.gradle.test
+
+import org.elasticsearch.gradle.plugin.PluginBuildPlugin
+import org.gradle.api.Project
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.Dependency
+import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ProjectDependency
+import org.gradle.api.tasks.Copy
+
+/**
+ * A plugin to run messy tests, which are generally tests that depend on plugins.
+ *
+ * This plugin will add the same test configuration as standalone tests, except
+ * also add the plugin-metadata and properties files for each plugin project
+ * dependency.
+ */
+class MessyTestPlugin extends StandaloneTestPlugin {
+    @Override
+    public void apply(Project project) {
+        super.apply(project)
+
+        project.configurations.testCompile.dependencies.all { Dependency dep ->
+            // this closure is run every time a compile dependency is added
+            if (dep instanceof ProjectDependency && dep.dependencyProject.plugins.hasPlugin(PluginBuildPlugin)) {
+                project.gradle.projectsEvaluated {
+                    addPluginResources(project, dep.dependencyProject)
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    private static addPluginResources(Project project, Project pluginProject) {
+        String outputDir = "generated-resources/${pluginProject.name}"
+        String taskName = ClusterFormationTasks.pluginTaskName("copy", pluginProject.name, "Metadata")
+        Copy copyPluginMetadata = project.tasks.create(taskName, Copy.class)
+        copyPluginMetadata.into(outputDir)
+        copyPluginMetadata.from(pluginProject.tasks.pluginProperties)
+        copyPluginMetadata.from(pluginProject.file('src/main/plugin-metadata'))
+        project.sourceSets.test.output.dir(outputDir, builtBy: taskName)
+
+        // add each generated dir to the test classpath in IDEs
+        //project.eclipse.classpath.sourceSets = [project.sourceSets.test]
+        project.idea.module.singleEntryLibraries= ['TEST': [project.file(outputDir)]]
+    }
+}
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/elasticsearch.messy-test.properties b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/elasticsearch.messy-test.properties
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..507a0f85a04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/elasticsearch.messy-test.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#
+# Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+# license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright
+# ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+# the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+# not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+#
+
+implementation-class=org.elasticsearch.gradle.test.MessyTestPlugin