Claude Code Plugins Quick Reference

Full docs:

Plugins vs Standalone

Approach	Skill names	Best for
Standalone (`.claude/`)	`/hello`	Personal workflows, project-specific, quick experiments
Plugins (`.claude-plugin/plugin.json`)	`/plugin-name:hello`	Sharing with teams, community distribution, versioned releases

Plugin Structure

code

my-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json      # Required manifest
├── commands/            # Slash commands (Markdown files)
├── skills/              # Agent skills (SKILL.md files)
├── agents/              # Custom agent definitions
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json       # Event handlers
├── .mcp.json            # MCP server configs
└── .lsp.json            # LSP server configs

Common mistake: Don't put commands/, skills/, etc. inside .claude-plugin/. Only plugin.json goes there.

Manifest (plugin.json)

json

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "description": "What the plugin does",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "author": {
    "name": "Your Name"
  },
  "homepage": "https://github.com/you/my-plugin",
  "repository": "https://github.com/you/my-plugin",
  "license": "MIT"
}

The name field becomes the skill namespace prefix (e.g., /my-plugin:hello).

Quick Commands

Marketplace Management

bash

# Add marketplaces
/plugin marketplace add owner/repo              # GitHub
/plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.com/org/repo.git  # Other Git
/plugin marketplace add ./local-path            # Local directory
/plugin marketplace add https://example.com/marketplace.json  # URL

# Add specific branch/tag
/plugin marketplace add owner/repo#v1.0.0

# List, update, remove
/plugin marketplace list
/plugin marketplace update marketplace-name
/plugin marketplace remove marketplace-name

Shortcuts: /plugin market works, rm instead of remove

Plugin Installation

bash

# Install (defaults to user scope)
/plugin install plugin-name@marketplace-name

# Install with specific scope
claude plugin install plugin-name@marketplace-name --scope project
claude plugin install plugin-name@marketplace-name --scope local

# Enable/disable without uninstalling
/plugin disable plugin-name@marketplace-name
/plugin enable plugin-name@marketplace-name

# Uninstall
/plugin uninstall plugin-name@marketplace-name

Interactive UI

bash

/plugin    # Opens plugin manager with tabs:
           # - Discover: browse available plugins
           # - Installed: manage your plugins
           # - Marketplaces: add/remove marketplaces
           # - Errors: view loading errors

Navigate tabs with Tab / Shift+Tab

Installation Scopes

Scope	Who sees it	Stored in
User	You, all projects	`~/.claude/settings.json`
Project	All collaborators	`.claude/settings.json`
Local	You, this repo only	`.claude/settings.local.json`
Managed	All org users	Admin-controlled

Testing During Development

bash

# Load plugin from local directory
claude --plugin-dir ./my-plugin

# Load multiple plugins
claude --plugin-dir ./plugin-one --plugin-dir ./plugin-two

Restart Claude Code after making changes.

Official Marketplace Plugins

Code Intelligence (LSP)

Language	Plugin	Binary required
TypeScript	`typescript-lsp`	`typescript-language-server`
Python	`pyright-lsp`	`pyright-langserver`
Rust	`rust-analyzer-lsp`	`rust-analyzer`
Go	`gopls-lsp`	`gopls`
C/C++	`clangd-lsp`	`clangd`

Install: /plugin install typescript-lsp@claude-plugins-official

External Integrations (MCP)

github, gitlab, atlassian, asana, linear, notion, figma, vercel, firebase, supabase, slack, sentry

Development Workflows

commit-commands, pr-review-toolkit, agent-sdk-dev, plugin-dev

Creating a Skill in a Plugin

Create skills/my-skill/SKILL.md:

yaml

---
name: my-skill
description: What the skill does. Use when [context].
---

Instructions for Claude when this skill is invoked...

Creating a Command in a Plugin

Create commands/hello.md:

yaml

---
description: Greet the user
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Greet the user named "$ARGUMENTS" warmly.

Use as: /my-plugin:hello Alex

Hooks in Plugins

Create hooks/hooks.json:

json

{
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Write|Edit",
        "hooks": [{
          "type": "command",
          "command": "jq -r '.tool_input.file_path' | xargs npm run lint:fix"
        }]
      }
    ]
  }
}

LSP Configuration

Create .lsp.json at plugin root:

json

{
  "go": {
    "command": "gopls",
    "args": ["serve"],
    "extensionToLanguage": {
      ".go": "go"
    }
  }
}

Auto-Updates

•Official marketplaces: auto-update enabled by default
•Third-party/local: disabled by default
•Toggle per-marketplace in /plugin > Marketplaces
•Disable all: export DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=true
•Plugins only: DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=true FORCE_AUTOUPDATE_PLUGINS=true

Team Setup

Add to .claude/settings.json for automatic marketplace prompts:

json

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": ["your-org/team-plugins"],
  "enabledPlugins": ["plugin-name@your-org-team-plugins"]
}

Troubleshooting

•/plugin not recognized: Requires Claude Code 1.0.33+. Run claude --version
•Plugin skills not appearing: rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/cache, restart, reinstall
•LSP binary not found: Check /plugin Errors tab, install required binary
•Marketplace not loading: Verify .claude-plugin/marketplace.json exists at path
•Files not found: Plugins are cached; paths outside plugin directory won't work

Convert Standalone to Plugin

•Create my-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
•Copy .claude/commands to my-plugin/commands/
•Copy .claude/skills to my-plugin/skills/
•Move hooks from settings.json to my-plugin/hooks/hooks.json
•Test: claude --plugin-dir ./my-plugin