diff --git a/.github/workflows/go.yml b/.github/workflows/go.yml
index 2273f225..fff4a365 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/go.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/go.yml
@@ -55,4 +55,26 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Build for ${{ matrix.os }}/${{ matrix.arch }}
         run: |
-          GOOS=${{ matrix.os }} GOARCH=${{ matrix.arch }} go build -o versitygw-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.arch }} cmd/versitygw/*.go
\ No newline at end of file
+          GOOS=${{ matrix.os }} GOARCH=${{ matrix.arch }} go build -o versitygw-${{ matrix.os }}-${{ matrix.arch }} cmd/versitygw/*.go
+
+  verify-plugins:
+    name: Verify Plugin Builds
+    needs: build
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+
+      - name: Check out code
+        uses: actions/checkout@v6
+
+      - name: Set up Go
+        uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+        with:
+          go-version: 'stable'
+
+      - name: Build all plugins
+        run: |
+          for dir in plugins/*/; do
+            [ -f "${dir}"*.go ] || continue
+            echo "Building plugin: ${dir}"
+            go build -buildmode=plugin -o /dev/null ./"${dir}"
+          done
diff --git a/plugins/noop/Makefile b/plugins/noop/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..edc55043
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/noop/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+# Copyright 2026 Versity Software
+# This file is licensed 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.
+
+OUTPUT ?= noop.so
+
+.PHONY: all
+all: build
+
+.PHONY: build
+build:
+	go build -buildmode=plugin -o $(OUTPUT) .
+
+.PHONY: clean
+clean:
+	rm -f $(OUTPUT)
diff --git a/plugins/noop/README.md b/plugins/noop/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4b0b9fd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/noop/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# noop backend plugin
+
+The noop backend is a `/dev/null`-style backend for testing. It accepts all S3
+API requests and discards any data written to it. Read operations return empty
+but valid responses (empty bucket lists, empty object lists, empty object
+bodies, etc.).
+
+This backend is useful for:
+- Load and performance testing the gateway without storage I/O as a bottleneck
+- Verifying gateway configuration and middleware behavior
+
+## Building
+
+From this directory:
+
+```sh
+make
+```
+
+This produces `noop.so`. To place the output elsewhere use the `OUTPUT` variable:
+
+```sh
+make OUTPUT=/usr/local/lib/versitygw/noop.so
+```
+
+Note: You will likely need to build versitygw binary at the same time as the
+plugin. See warnings: [plugin-warnings](https://pkg.go.dev/plugin#hdr-Warnings),
+notably:
+- Plugins are currently supported only on Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS, making them unsuitable for applications intended to be portable.
+- Runtime crashes are likely to occur unless all parts of the program (the application and all its plugins) are compiled using exactly the same version of the toolchain, the same build tags, and the same values of certain flags and environment variables.
+
+## Usage
+
+Pass the path to the compiled plugin to the `plugin` subcommand of `versitygw`:
+
+```sh
+versitygw <global-flags> plugin /path/to/noop.so
+```
+
+The noop backend requires no configuration file. If one is passed via `-c` /
+`--config`, it is silently ignored.
+
+### Example
+
+```sh
+versitygw --access myaccesskey --secret mysecretkey plugin ./noop.so
+```
+
+The gateway will then respond to S3 API requests on the default port, accepting
+all operations without persisting any data.
diff --git a/plugins/noop/noop.go b/plugins/noop/noop.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6b7497e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/noop/noop.go
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+// Copyright 2026 Versity Software
+// This file is licensed 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 main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"crypto/md5"
+	"encoding/hex"
+	"io"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/s3"
+	"github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/s3/types"
+	"github.com/versity/versitygw/backend"
+	"github.com/versity/versitygw/plugins"
+	"github.com/versity/versitygw/s3err"
+	"github.com/versity/versitygw/s3response"
+)
+
+// Backend is the exported plugin entry point.
+var Backend plugins.BackendPlugin = &noopPlugin{}
+
+type noopPlugin struct{}
+
+func (p *noopPlugin) New(_ string) (backend.Backend, error) {
+	return newNoOp()
+}
+
+var startupTime time.Time
+
+func init() {
+	startupTime = time.Now()
+}
+
+type noOp struct {
+	backend.BackendUnsupported
+	emptyETag string
+}
+
+func newNoOp() (*noOp, error) {
+	sum := md5.Sum([]byte{})
+	etag := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])
+	return &noOp{emptyETag: etag}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) ListBuckets(context.Context, s3response.ListBucketsInput) (s3response.ListAllMyBucketsResult, error) {
+	return s3response.ListAllMyBucketsResult{
+		Owner: s3response.CanonicalUser{
+			ID: "fakeid",
+		},
+		Buckets: s3response.ListAllMyBucketsList{
+			Bucket: []s3response.ListAllMyBucketsEntry{{
+				Name:         "test",
+				CreationDate: startupTime,
+			}},
+		},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) HeadBucket(ctx context.Context, input *s3.HeadBucketInput) (*s3.HeadBucketOutput, error) {
+	return &s3.HeadBucketOutput{}, nil
+}
+
+var fakeUploadID = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
+
+func (n *noOp) CreateMultipartUpload(_ context.Context, input s3response.CreateMultipartUploadInput) (s3response.InitiateMultipartUploadResult, error) {
+	return s3response.InitiateMultipartUploadResult{
+		Bucket:   *input.Bucket,
+		Key:      *input.Key,
+		UploadId: fakeUploadID,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) CompleteMultipartUpload(ctx context.Context, input *s3.CompleteMultipartUploadInput) (s3response.CompleteMultipartUploadResult, string, error) {
+	return s3response.CompleteMultipartUploadResult{
+		Bucket: input.Bucket,
+		ETag:   &n.emptyETag,
+		Key:    input.Key,
+	}, "", nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) AbortMultipartUpload(ctx context.Context, input *s3.AbortMultipartUploadInput) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) ListMultipartUploads(ctx context.Context, input *s3.ListMultipartUploadsInput) (s3response.ListMultipartUploadsResult, error) {
+	return s3response.ListMultipartUploadsResult{
+		Bucket:         *input.Bucket,
+		Delimiter:      *input.Delimiter,
+		Prefix:         *input.Prefix,
+		MaxUploads:     int(*input.MaxUploads),
+		Uploads:        []s3response.Upload{},
+		CommonPrefixes: []s3response.CommonPrefix{},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) ListParts(ctx context.Context, input *s3.ListPartsInput) (s3response.ListPartsResult, error) {
+	return s3response.ListPartsResult{
+		Bucket:    *input.Bucket,
+		Key:       *input.Key,
+		UploadID:  *input.UploadId,
+		Initiator: s3response.Initiator{},
+		Owner:     s3response.Owner{},
+		MaxParts:  int(*input.MaxParts),
+		Parts:     []s3response.Part{},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) UploadPart(_ context.Context, input *s3.UploadPartInput) (*s3.UploadPartOutput, error) {
+	if _, err := io.Copy(io.Discard, input.Body); err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+	return &s3.UploadPartOutput{ETag: &n.emptyETag}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) UploadPartCopy(context.Context, *s3.UploadPartCopyInput) (s3response.CopyPartResult, error) {
+	return s3response.CopyPartResult{
+		ETag: &n.emptyETag,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) PutObject(_ context.Context, input s3response.PutObjectInput) (s3response.PutObjectOutput, error) {
+	if _, err := io.Copy(io.Discard, input.Body); err != nil {
+		return s3response.PutObjectOutput{}, err
+	}
+	return s3response.PutObjectOutput{ETag: n.emptyETag}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) HeadObject(ctx context.Context, input *s3.HeadObjectInput) (*s3.HeadObjectOutput, error) {
+	return &s3.HeadObjectOutput{
+		ETag:         &n.emptyETag,
+		LastModified: backend.GetTimePtr(startupTime),
+		Metadata:     map[string]string{},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetObject(context.Context, *s3.GetObjectInput) (*s3.GetObjectOutput, error) {
+	return &s3.GetObjectOutput{
+		ETag:         &n.emptyETag,
+		LastModified: backend.GetTimePtr(startupTime),
+		Metadata:     map[string]string{},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetObjectAttributes(context.Context, *s3.GetObjectAttributesInput) (s3response.GetObjectAttributesResponse, error) {
+	return s3response.GetObjectAttributesResponse{
+		ETag:         &n.emptyETag,
+		LastModified: backend.GetTimePtr(startupTime),
+		ObjectSize:   new(int64),
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) CopyObject(context.Context, s3response.CopyObjectInput) (s3response.CopyObjectOutput, error) {
+	return s3response.CopyObjectOutput{
+		CopyObjectResult: &s3response.CopyObjectResult{
+			ETag: &n.emptyETag,
+		},
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) ListObjects(_ context.Context, input *s3.ListObjectsInput) (s3response.ListObjectsResult, error) {
+	return s3response.ListObjectsResult{
+		CommonPrefixes: []types.CommonPrefix{},
+		Contents:       []s3response.Object{},
+		Delimiter:      input.Delimiter,
+		IsTruncated:    new(bool),
+		Marker:         new(string),
+		MaxKeys:        input.MaxKeys,
+		Name:           input.Bucket,
+		NextMarker:     new(string),
+		Prefix:         input.Prefix,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) ListObjectsV2(_ context.Context, input *s3.ListObjectsV2Input) (s3response.ListObjectsV2Result, error) {
+	return s3response.ListObjectsV2Result{
+		CommonPrefixes:        []types.CommonPrefix{},
+		Contents:              []s3response.Object{},
+		Delimiter:             input.Delimiter,
+		IsTruncated:           new(bool),
+		ContinuationToken:     new(string),
+		MaxKeys:               input.MaxKeys,
+		Name:                  input.Bucket,
+		NextContinuationToken: new(string),
+		Prefix:                input.Prefix,
+	}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) DeleteObject(context.Context, *s3.DeleteObjectInput) (*s3.DeleteObjectOutput, error) {
+	return &s3.DeleteObjectOutput{}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) DeleteObjects(ctx context.Context, input *s3.DeleteObjectsInput) (s3response.DeleteResult, error) {
+	return s3response.DeleteResult{}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetBucketAcl(ctx context.Context, input *s3.GetBucketAclInput) ([]byte, error) {
+	return []byte{}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) PutBucketAcl(ctx context.Context, bucket string, data []byte) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetBucketPolicy(_ context.Context, bucket string) ([]byte, error) {
+	return []byte{}, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetObjectLockConfiguration(_ context.Context, bucket string) ([]byte, error) {
+	return nil, s3err.GetAPIError(s3err.ErrObjectLockConfigurationNotFound)
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) PutObjectTagging(context.Context, string, string, string, map[string]string) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) GetObjectTagging(context.Context, string, string, string) (map[string]string, error) {
+	tags := make(map[string]string)
+	return tags, nil
+}
+
+func (n *noOp) DeleteObjectTagging(context.Context, string, string, string) error {
+	return nil
+}