diff --git a/lib/tasks/docker.rake b/lib/tasks/docker.rake
index b0d2e6e2ec5..fb706a8f6f1 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/docker.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/docker.rake
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 # => SKIP_TESTS                set to 1 to skip all tests
 # => SKIP_CORE                 set to 1 to skip core tests (rspec and qunit)
 # => SKIP_PLUGINS              set to 1 to skip plugin tests (rspec and qunit)
+# => SKIP_INSTALL_PLUGINS      comma seperated list of plugins you want to skip installing
 # => INSTALL_OFFICIAL_PLUGINS  set to 1 to install all core plugins before running tests
 # => RUBY_ONLY                 set to 1 to skip all qunit tests
 # => JS_ONLY                   set to 1 to skip all rspec tests
diff --git a/lib/tasks/plugin.rake b/lib/tasks/plugin.rake
index 9da1f433506..693f7ef8179 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/plugin.rake
+++ b/lib/tasks/plugin.rake
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ task 'plugin:install_all_official' do
     'poll'
   ])
 
+  if skip_install = ENV["SKIP_INSTALL_PLUGINS"]
+    skip_install.split(",").map(&:strip).each { |plugin| skip << plugin  }
+  end
+
   map = {
     'Canned Replies' => 'https://github.com/discourse/discourse-canned-replies',
     'discourse-perspective' => 'https://github.com/discourse/discourse-perspective-api'