i’m building a small docker container image containing pulumi to use in my deployments and want to ensure the relevant provider plugin (aws in this case) is installed when the image is built to prevent it having to be downloaded at runtime. i can see there is a CLI command

pulumi plugin install KIND NAME VERSION

but i’d prefer to just grab the latest (and not provide a version) is this possible? or will i need to always pass a specific version number?

You do need to pass a specific version and we recommend pinning to versions in this way so that you don't get surprised by changes, even breaking changes between major version upgrades.