Skill Packager

A skill for packaging individual skills into distributable Claude Code plugins. This skill handles the full packaging lifecycle: structuring the plugin, generating metadata, creating commands, managing versions, and preparing for sharing via GitHub.

When to Use This Skill

• •User wants to bundle one or more skills into a Claude Code plugin
• •User wants to create a distributable plugin from scratch
• •User has a working skill and wants to share it as a plugin
• •User wants to share a plugin via GitHub
• •User wants to add versioning, commands, or MCP configuration to existing skills

Plugin Anatomy

A Claude Code plugin has this structure:

plugin-name/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json          # REQUIRED: Plugin identity & metadata
├── .mcp.json                # REQUIRED: MCP server connections (can be empty)
├── README.md                # Recommended: Human-readable documentation
├── LICENSE                  # Recommended: License file
├── commands/                # Optional: Slash command definitions
│   └── command-name.md      # Each command is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter
└── skills/                  # Optional: Bundled skills
    ├── skill-one/
    │   └── SKILL.md
    └── skill-two/
        ├── SKILL.md
        ├── scripts/
        └── references/

Packaging Process

Step 1: Gather Skills

Ask the user which skills to include. Accept:

• •Directory paths containing skills
• •GitHub URLs to skill repositories
• •Skill names if they're already installed locally
• •A request to create new skills (defer to skill-creator)

For each skill, verify it has a valid SKILL.md with frontmatter.

Step 2: Choose Plugin Metadata

Collect from the user:

Step 3: Generate plugin.json

Create the .claude-plugin/plugin.json file:

{
  "name": "plugin-name",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "What this plugin does in one sentence.",
  "author": {
    "name": "Author Name"
  }
}

Step 4: Configure MCP Servers

Determine if the plugin needs external service connections:

• •If skills reference external APIs or services, configure .mcp.json
• •If skills are self-contained, use an empty configuration: {"mcpServers": {}}

Step 5: Create Commands

For each major workflow, create a slash command in commands/:

---
description: Short description of what this command does
argument-hint: "<what the user should provide>"
---

# Command Name

[Detailed workflow instructions for this command]

## Workflow

### 1. [First Step]
[Instructions]

### 2. [Second Step]
[Instructions]

## Output Format
[What the command produces]

Guidelines for commands:

• •One command per major use case (don't create a command for every minor variation)
• •Command names should be verb-noun: create-skill, review-code, find-issue
• •Keep command files focused (300-500 lines max)
• •Reference skills for detailed guidance: "See the skill-name skill for detailed instructions"

Step 6: Write README.md

Generate a README with:

• •Plugin description
• •Skills included (table format)
• •Commands available (table format)
• •Installation instructions (git clone + claude plugin add)
• •Configuration notes
• •License information

Step 7: Validate

Before finalizing, validate the plugin:

1. •Structure check: All required files exist (.claude-plugin/plugin.json, .mcp.json)
2. •Reference check: All cross-references resolve (commands reference existing skills, etc.)
3. •Metadata check: plugin.json is valid JSON with required fields
4. •MCP check: .mcp.json is valid JSON
5. •Size check: No unreasonably large files (warn if any file > 100KB)
6. •Naming check: Plugin name follows kebab-case convention
7. •Skill validation: Run ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/skill-creator/scripts/quick_validate.py on each skill

Step 8: Prepare for Sharing

Initialize a git repository and prepare for GitHub sharing:

cd plugin-dir
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial plugin release v1.0.0"

To share with others:

1. •Create a GitHub repository
2. •Push the plugin: git remote add origin <url> && git push -u origin main
3. •Others install via: git clone <url> && claude plugin add ./plugin-name

Version Management

When updating a published plugin:

1. •Update version in plugin.json (follow semver)
2. •Tag the release in git: git tag v1.1.0
3. •Re-run validation
4. •Push the updated version: git push && git push --tags

Semver guidelines for skills:

• •Patch (1.0.x): Typo fixes, minor wording improvements
• •Minor (1.x.0): New skills or commands added, non-breaking changes
• •Major (x.0.0): Breaking changes to existing skills or commands, removed features

Integration with Other Skills