You can write plugin directly as a part of your application. Set pluginPackages=your.plugin.package inside your hotswap-agent.properties configuration to discover @Plugin annotated classes. You will also need agent JAR dependency to compile, but be careful NOT to add the JAR to your application, it must be loaded only as a javaagent. Maven dependency:

    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hotswapagent</groupId>
        <artifactId>hotswap-agent-core</artifactId>
        <version>1.4.0</version>
        <scope>provided</scope>
    </dependency>

Example:

    @Plugin(name = "MyPlugin")
    public class MyPlugin {
    
        @OnClassLoadEvent(classNameRegexp = ".*", events = LoadEvent.REDEFINE)
        public static void onAnyReload() {
            MyCache.clear();
        }
    
        @OnResourceFileEvent(path = "/", filter = ".*.resource")
        public void onResourceChanged() {
            MyResourceCache.clear();
        }
    }

See ExamplePlugin (part of TestApplication) to go through a commented simple plugin. Read agent readme to understand agent concepts. Check existing plugins source code for more examples.