Plugin Packager

You are packaging Claude Code skills, agents, commands, hooks, and other assets from a source directory into a properly structured Claude Code plugin.

Input

The user will provide:

1. •

   Source directory ($1): Path to any directory that contains one or more of: skills/, agents/, commands/, hooks/, scripts/, templates/ subdirectories. This could be a .claude/ directory, a standalone folder, or any arbitrary path. At least one recognized component subdirectory must exist. Defaults to .claude/ in the current project if not specified.

2. •

   Plugin name ($2): The kebab-case name for the new plugin. This becomes the namespace for all commands (e.g., /plugin-name:command).

3. •

   Optional flags (parsed from $ARGUMENTS):

   • •--marketplace <path>: Path to an existing marketplace repo root (contains .claude-plugin/marketplace.json). If provided, register the new plugin in that marketplace's marketplace.json.
   • •--target <path>: Where to create the plugin directory. Defaults to ./plugins/<plugin-name> if a marketplace path is given, otherwise ./<plugin-name> in the current directory.
   • •--only <filter>: Cherry-pick specific components. Format: skills:name1,name2 agents:name1,name2 commands:name1,name2. If omitted, copy everything found.
   • •--description "<text>": Plugin description. If omitted, generate one from the contents.
   • •--version <semver>: Plugin version. Defaults to 1.0.0.
   • •--author "<name>": Author name for the manifest.

Execution Steps

Step 1: Validate source directory

Read the source directory and catalog what exists:

source/
├── agents/*.md
├── commands/*.md
├── skills/*/SKILL.md
├── hooks/ (hooks.json or individual configs)
├── scripts/
├── templates/
├── tests/
└── .mcp.json (if present)

List each component found with a count. If --only was provided, filter to just those named components. If the source directory doesn't exist or has no recognizable components, stop and tell the user.

Step 2: Create plugin directory structure

Create the target directory with the correct plugin layout:

mkdir -p <target>/.claude-plugin

Step 3: Move/copy components

For each component type found (respecting --only filter if provided):

• •agents/: Copy *.md files to <target>/agents/
• •commands/: Copy *.md files to <target>/commands/
• •skills/: Copy entire skill directories (each containing SKILL.md plus any guidelines/, templates/, scripts/ subdirectories) to <target>/skills/
• •hooks/: If hooks.json exists, copy to <target>/hooks/hooks.json. If hooks are in a settings file, extract the hooks object and write it to <target>/hooks/hooks.json.
• •scripts/: Copy to <target>/scripts/ and ensure shell scripts are executable (chmod +x)
• •templates/: Copy to <target>/templates/
• •tests/: Copy to <target>/tests/
• •.mcp.json: Copy to <target>/.mcp.json

Use cp -r to preserve directory structure. If the user explicitly asks to migrate (move rather than copy), use mv instead of cp. Default to cp to be safe.

Step 4: Create plugin.json manifest

Write <target>/.claude-plugin/plugin.json:

{
  "name": "<plugin-name>",
  "description": "<description>",
  "version": "<version>",
  "author": {
    "name": "<author>"
  },
  "keywords": [<generated-from-contents>]
}

Generate keywords from the component names (e.g., skill names, agent names). Keep it to 5-8 relevant tags.

Step 5: Register in marketplace (if --marketplace provided)

If a marketplace path was given:

1. •Read <marketplace>/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
2. •Compute the relative source path from the marketplace root to the plugin directory (must start with ./)
3. •Add a new entry to the plugins array:

{
  "name": "<plugin-name>",
  "source": "./<relative-path-to-plugin>",
  "description": "<description>",
  "version": "<version>",
  "category": "development",
  "tags": [<keywords>]
}

1. •Write the updated marketplace.json back

If the marketplace.json does NOT exist yet but the user specified --marketplace, create the full marketplace structure:

<marketplace>/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

With schema:

{
  "name": "<derive-from-directory-name>",
  "owner": {
    "name": "<author or 'Team'>"
  },
  "metadata": {
    "description": "<marketplace description>",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "pluginRoot": "./plugins"
  },
  "plugins": [
    { <the new plugin entry> }
  ]
}

Step 6: Verify and report

After all operations:

1. •Run find <target> -maxdepth 3 | sort to show the created structure
2. •Confirm .claude-plugin/plugin.json is valid JSON
3. •If marketplace was updated, confirm marketplace.json is valid JSON
4. •Print a summary:
   • •Plugin name and path
   • •Components packaged (with counts)
   • •Whether marketplace was updated
   • •How to test: claude --plugin-dir <target>
   • •How to install (if marketplace): /plugin marketplace add <marketplace-path> then /plugin install <name>@<marketplace-name>

Important Rules

• •Only plugin.json goes inside .claude-plugin/. All component directories (agents/, commands/, skills/, hooks/) must be at the plugin root level.
• •Skills must have SKILL.md (exact filename) inside a named subdirectory.
• •Commands are flat .md files in the commands/ directory.
• •Agents are flat .md files in the agents/ directory.
• •Hooks go in hooks/hooks.json, not inside .claude-plugin/.
• •All paths in hooks/MCP configs should use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} for portability. If you find hardcoded absolute paths in hook commands or MCP server configs during the copy, replace them with ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/... relative equivalents.
• •Preserve file permissions on scripts.
• •Default to cp (copy). Only use mv (migrate) if the user explicitly asks to move/migrate. If moving, remove the source directory afterward only if fully emptied.
• •If the source directory also contains settings.json, settings.local.json, or CLAUDE.md, do NOT copy/move those -- they are project config, not plugin components. Leave them in place.