diff --git a/travis-install-plugins.sh b/travis-install-plugins.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..69d797a0df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/travis-install-plugins.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+for slug in "$@"
+do
+    plugin_project="${slug##*/}"
+    plugin_dir="plugins/${plugin_project#librime-}"
+    git clone --depth 1 "https://github.com/${slug}.git" "${plugin_dir}"
+
+    if [[ -e "${plugin_dir}/travis-install.sh" ]]; then
+	bash "${plugin_dir}/travis-install.sh"
+    fi
+done
diff --git a/travis-install.sh b/travis-install.sh
index 0aa0f79ee0..b29586afd0 100755
--- a/travis-install.sh
+++ b/travis-install.sh
@@ -21,3 +21,8 @@ if [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == linux ]]; then
 elif [[ "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" == osx ]]; then
   make -f xcode.mk thirdparty
 fi
+
+if [[ -n "${RIME_PLUGINS}" ]]; then
+    # intentionally not quoted: ${RIME_PLUGIN} is a space separated list of slugs
+    bash ./travis-install-plugins.sh ${RIME_PLUGINS}
+fi