A mechanism is provided for chaining server applications. A chaining module is provided that receives a series of server applications and chains them together passing the output of one to the input of the next. The series of server applications may be passed to the chaining module in a chain option. A properties file may be provided to register names of server applications. A name may be associated with the chaining module and the options may be specified in the properties file. Thus, a chain of server applications may be registered by name.