diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginsService.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginsService.java
index 8c765bdd22b..61303bd070a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginsService.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/PluginsService.java
@@ -376,7 +376,7 @@ public class PluginsService extends AbstractComponent {
                     if (pluginInfo.isJvm()) {
                         plugin = loadPlugin(pluginInfo.getClassname(), settings);
                     } else {
-                        plugin = null;
+                        plugin = new SitePlugin(pluginInfo.getName(), pluginInfo.getDescription());
                     }
                     plugins.add(new Tuple<>(pluginInfo, plugin));
                 } catch (Throwable e) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/SitePlugin.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/SitePlugin.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3158603b503
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/plugins/SitePlugin.java
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+/*
+ * 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.plugins;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.common.component.LifecycleComponent;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Module;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+
+import java.io.Closeable;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+
+final class SitePlugin implements Plugin {
+    final String name;
+    final String description;
+    
+    SitePlugin(String name, String description) {
+        this.name = name;
+        this.description = description;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String name() {
+        return name;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String description() {
+        return description;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends Module>> modules() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<? extends Module> modules(Settings settings) {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends LifecycleComponent>> services() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends Module>> indexModules() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<? extends Module> indexModules(Settings settings) {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends Closeable>> indexServices() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends Module>> shardModules() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<? extends Module> shardModules(Settings settings) {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Collection<Class<? extends Closeable>> shardServices() {
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void processModule(Module module) {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Settings additionalSettings() {
+        return Settings.EMPTY;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/plugins/example-site/pom.xml b/plugins/example-site/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b4d9f59762c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/example-site/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
+         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+    <parent>
+        <groupId>org.elasticsearch.plugin</groupId>
+        <artifactId>elasticsearch-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>2.0.0-beta1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    </parent>
+
+    <artifactId>elasticsearch-example-site</artifactId>
+    <name>Elasticsearch Example site plugin</name>
+    <description>Demonstrates how to serve resources via elasticsearch.</description>
+
+    <properties>
+        <elasticsearch.assembly.descriptor>${project.basedir}/src/main/assemblies/plugin-assembly.xml</elasticsearch.assembly.descriptor>
+        <elasticsearch.plugin.site>true</elasticsearch.plugin.site>
+        <elasticsearch.plugin.classname>NA</elasticsearch.plugin.classname>
+        <elasticsearch.plugin.jvm>false</elasticsearch.plugin.jvm>
+
+        <tests.rest.suite>example</tests.rest.suite>
+        <tests.rest.load_packaged>false</tests.rest.load_packaged>
+        <skip.unit.tests>true</skip.unit.tests>
+    </properties>
+
+    <build>
+        <plugins>
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
+            </plugin>
+            <!-- disable jar plugin, we have no jar -->
+            <plugin>
+                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
+                <executions>
+                    <execution>
+                        <id>default-jar</id>
+                        <phase>none</phase>
+                    </execution>
+                </executions>
+            </plugin>
+        </plugins>
+    </build>
+
+</project>
diff --git a/plugins/example-site/src/main/assemblies/plugin-assembly.xml b/plugins/example-site/src/main/assemblies/plugin-assembly.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..48a0286bf43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/example-site/src/main/assemblies/plugin-assembly.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<assembly>
+    <id>plugin</id>
+    <formats>
+        <format>zip</format>
+    </formats>
+    <includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
+    <!-- _site/ directory containing contents -->
+    <fileSets>
+        <fileSet>
+            <directory>${project.basedir}/src/site</directory>
+            <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
+        </fileSet>
+    </fileSets>
+    <!-- plugin descriptor -->
+    <files>
+        <file>
+            <source>${elasticsearch.tools.directory}/plugin-metadata/plugin-descriptor.properties</source>
+            <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
+            <filtered>true</filtered>
+        </file>
+    </files>
+</assembly>
diff --git a/plugins/example-site/src/rest-api-spec/test/example/10_basic.yaml b/plugins/example-site/src/rest-api-spec/test/example/10_basic.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..91d88f28dd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/example-site/src/rest-api-spec/test/example/10_basic.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+# Integration tests for Example site plugin
+#
+"Example site loaded":
+    - do:
+        cluster.state: {}
+
+    # Get master node id
+    - set: { master_node: master }
+
+    - do:
+        nodes.info: {}
+
+    - match:  { nodes.$master.plugins.0.name: example-site  }
+    - match:  { nodes.$master.plugins.0.jvm: false  }
+    - match:  { nodes.$master.plugins.0.site: true  }
diff --git a/plugins/example-site/src/site/_site/index.html b/plugins/example-site/src/site/_site/index.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bc6343f6653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/example-site/src/site/_site/index.html
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <title>Page title</title>
+  </head>
+  <body>Page body</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/plugins/example-site/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/example/SiteRestIT.java b/plugins/example-site/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/example/SiteRestIT.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5e6184670c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/example-site/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/example/SiteRestIT.java
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+/*
+ * 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.example;
+
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.Name;
+import com.carrotsearch.randomizedtesting.annotations.ParametersFactory;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.ElasticsearchRestTestCase;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.RestTestCandidate;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.rest.parser.RestTestParseException;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+public class SiteRestIT extends ElasticsearchRestTestCase {
+
+    public SiteRestIT(@Name("yaml") RestTestCandidate testCandidate) {
+        super(testCandidate);
+    }
+
+    @ParametersFactory
+    public static Iterable<Object[]> parameters() throws IOException, RestTestParseException {
+        return ElasticsearchRestTestCase.createParameters(0, 1);
+    }
+}
+
diff --git a/plugins/pom.xml b/plugins/pom.xml
index ad25cb91d5d..8c0e845841a 100644
--- a/plugins/pom.xml
+++ b/plugins/pom.xml
@@ -384,6 +384,7 @@
         <module>cloud-gce</module>
         <module>cloud-azure</module>
         <module>cloud-aws</module>
+        <module>example-site</module>
         <module>lang-python</module>
         <module>lang-javascript</module>
         <module>delete-by-query</module>