diff --git a/core/zplugin.go b/core/plugin/zplugin.go
similarity index 99%
rename from core/zplugin.go
rename to core/plugin/zplugin.go
index ee9a96fac..478746455 100644
--- a/core/zplugin.go
+++ b/core/plugin/zplugin.go
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 // generated by directives_generate.go; DO NOT EDIT
 
-package core
+package plugin
 
 import (
 	// Include all plugins.
diff --git a/coredns.go b/coredns.go
index aa9e20818..5b3fa2b8f 100644
--- a/coredns.go
+++ b/coredns.go
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@ package main
 
 //go:generate go run directives_generate.go
 
-import "github.com/coredns/coredns/coremain"
+import (
+	"github.com/coredns/coredns/coremain"
+
+	// Plug in CoreDNS
+	_ "github.com/coredns/coredns/core/plugin"
+)
 
 func main() {
 	coremain.Run()
diff --git a/coremain/run.go b/coremain/run.go
index b0d83b695..de00d1c5f 100644
--- a/coremain/run.go
+++ b/coremain/run.go
@@ -15,9 +15,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/mholt/caddy"
 
 	"github.com/coredns/coredns/core/dnsserver"
-
-	// Plug in CoreDNS
-	_ "github.com/coredns/coredns/core"
 )
 
 func init() {
diff --git a/directives_generate.go b/directives_generate.go
index ece92e329..3c1c0214b 100644
--- a/directives_generate.go
+++ b/directives_generate.go
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ func main() {
 		}
 	}
 
-	genImports("core/zplugin.go", "core", mi)
+	genImports("core/plugin/zplugin.go", "plugin", mi)
 	genDirectives("core/dnsserver/zdirectives.go", "dnsserver", md)
 }
 
diff --git a/test/plugin_test.go b/test/plugin_test.go
index 9f3604e4e..c2382873c 100644
--- a/test/plugin_test.go
+++ b/test/plugin_test.go
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ import (
 	"github.com/coredns/coredns/plugin/test"
 
 	"github.com/miekg/dns"
+
+	// Load all managed plugins in github.com/coredns/coredns
+	_ "github.com/coredns/coredns/core/plugin"
 )
 
 func benchmarkLookupBalanceRewriteCache(b *testing.B) {