The text provides a comprehensive guide on best practices for developing custom plugins for Kong using Lua, emphasizing the importance of standardizing processes and speeding up development. It highlights the use of tools like Pongo for testing and the Kong plugin template as a starting point, along with recommendations for managing plugin configurations, implementing custom logic with the Plugin Development Kit (PDK), and avoiding latency issues. It also stresses the need for thorough testing, including unit, integration, and performance testing, while following a test-driven approach. Logging and error handling are discussed, with advice on using appropriate log levels and protected execution for function calls. The guide covers data access strategies, particularly in different deployment modes, and suggests using Redis for data storage. It advises on various deployment strategies, such as creating custom images for Docker and Kubernetes, and addresses plugin versioning and continuous integration practices using Pongo. Additionally, the text underscores the importance of code documentation, providing installation instructions, usage examples, and a changelog to facilitate plugin distribution and usage.