Iron‐sulfur (Fe‐S) clusters are important prosthetic groups in all organisms. The biosynthesis of Fe‐S clusters has been studied extensively in bacteria and yeast. By contrast, much remains to be discovered about Fe‐S cluster biogenesis in higher plants. Plant plastids are known to make their own Fe‐S clusters. Plastid Fe‐S proteins are involved in essential metabolic pathways, such as photosynthesis, nitrogen and sulfur assimilation, protein import, and chlorophyll transformation. This review aims to summarize the roles of Fe‐S proteins in essential metabolic pathways and to give an overview of the latest findings on plastidic Fe‐S assembly. The plastidic Fe‐S biosynthetic machinery contains many homologues of bacterial mobilization of sulfur (SUF) proteins, but there are additional components and properties that may be plant‐specific. These additional features could make the plastidic machinery more suitable for assembling Fe‐S clusters in the presence of oxygen, and may enable it to be regulated in response to oxidative stress, iron status and light.