Create and distribute a plugin marketplace

A plugin marketplace is a catalog that lets you distribute plugins to others. Marketplaces provide centralized discovery, version tracking, automatic updates, and support for multiple source types (git repositories, local paths, and more). This guide shows you how to create your own marketplace to share plugins with your team or community. Looking to install plugins from an existing marketplace? See Discover and install prebuilt plugins.

Overview

Creating and distributing a marketplace involves:

Creating plugins: build one or more plugins with commands, agents, hooks, MCP servers, or LSP servers. This guide assumes you already have plugins to distribute; see Create plugins for details on how to create them.
Creating a marketplace file: define a marketplace.json that lists your plugins and where to find them (see Create the marketplace file).
Host the marketplace: push to GitHub, GitLab, or another git host (see Host and distribute marketplaces).
Share with users: users add your marketplace with /plugin marketplace add and install individual plugins (see Discover and install plugins).

Once your marketplace is live, you can update it by pushing changes to your repository. Users refresh their local copy with /plugin marketplace update.

Walkthrough: create a local marketplace

This example creates a marketplace with one plugin: a /quality-review skill for code reviews. You’ll create the directory structure, add a skill, create the plugin manifest and marketplace catalog, then install and test it.

Create the directory structure

mkdir -p my-marketplace/.claude-plugin
mkdir -p my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/.claude-plugin
mkdir -p my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/skills/quality-review

Create the skill

Create a SKILL.md file that defines what the /quality-review skill does.

my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/skills/quality-review/SKILL.md

---
description: Review code for bugs, security, and performance
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Review the code I've selected or the recent changes for:
- Potential bugs or edge cases
- Security concerns
- Performance issues
- Readability improvements

Be concise and actionable.

Create the plugin manifest

Create a plugin.json file that describes the plugin. The manifest goes in the .claude-plugin/ directory.

my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

{
  "name": "quality-review-plugin",
  "description": "Adds a /quality-review skill for quick code reviews",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

Create the marketplace file

Create the marketplace catalog that lists your plugin.

my-marketplace/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

{
  "name": "my-plugins",
  "owner": {
    "name": "Your Name"
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "quality-review-plugin",
      "source": "./plugins/quality-review-plugin",
      "description": "Adds a /quality-review skill for quick code reviews"
    }
  ]
}

Add and install

Add the marketplace and install the plugin.

/plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace
/plugin install quality-review-plugin@my-plugins

Try it out

Select some code in your editor and run your new command.

/quality-review

To learn more about what plugins can do, including hooks, agents, MCP servers, and LSP servers, see Plugins.

How plugins are installed: When users install a plugin, Claude Code copies the plugin directory to a cache location. This means plugins can’t reference files outside their directory using paths like ../shared-utils, because those files won’t be copied.If you need to share files across plugins, use symlinks (which are followed during copying). See Plugin caching and file resolution for details.

Create the marketplace file

Create .claude-plugin/marketplace.json in your repository root. This file defines your marketplace’s name, owner information, and a list of plugins with their sources. Each plugin entry needs at minimum a name and source (where to fetch it from). See the full schema below for all available fields.

{
  "name": "company-tools",
  "owner": {
    "name": "DevTools Team",
    "email": "devtools@example.com"
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "code-formatter",
      "source": "./plugins/formatter",
      "description": "Automatic code formatting on save",
      "version": "2.1.0",
      "author": {
        "name": "DevTools Team"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "deployment-tools",
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "company/deploy-plugin"
      },
      "description": "Deployment automation tools"
    }
  ]
}

Marketplace schema

Required fields

Field	Type	Description	Example
`name`	string	Marketplace identifier (kebab-case, no spaces). This is public-facing: users see it when installing plugins (for example, `/plugin install my-tool@your-marketplace`).	`"acme-tools"`
`owner`	object	Marketplace maintainer information (see fields below)
`plugins`	array	List of available plugins	See below

Reserved names: The following marketplace names are reserved for official Anthropic use and cannot be used by third-party marketplaces: claude-code-marketplace, claude-code-plugins, claude-plugins-official, anthropic-marketplace, anthropic-plugins, agent-skills, knowledge-work-plugins, life-sciences. Names that impersonate official marketplaces (like official-claude-plugins or anthropic-tools-v2) are also blocked.

Owner fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
`name`	string	Yes	Name of the maintainer or team
`email`	string	No	Contact email for the maintainer

Optional metadata

Field	Type	Description
`metadata.description`	string	Brief marketplace description
`metadata.version`	string	Marketplace version
`metadata.pluginRoot`	string	Base directory prepended to relative plugin source paths (for example, `"./plugins"` lets you write `"source": "formatter"` instead of `"source": "./plugins/formatter"`)

Plugin entries

Each plugin entry in the plugins array describes a plugin and where to find it. You can include any field from the plugin manifest schema (like description, version, author, commands, hooks, etc.), plus these marketplace-specific fields: source, category, tags, and strict.

Required fields

Field	Type	Description
`name`	string	Plugin identifier (kebab-case, no spaces). This is public-facing: users see it when installing (for example, `/plugin install my-plugin@marketplace`).
`source`	string\|object	Where to fetch the plugin from (see Plugin sources below)

Optional plugin fields

Standard metadata fields:

Field	Type	Description
`description`	string	Brief plugin description
`version`	string	Plugin version
`author`	object	Plugin author information (`name` required, `email` optional)
`homepage`	string	Plugin homepage or documentation URL
`repository`	string	Source code repository URL
`license`	string	SPDX license identifier (for example, MIT, Apache-2.0)
`keywords`	array	Tags for plugin discovery and categorization
`category`	string	Plugin category for organization
`tags`	array	Tags for searchability
`strict`	boolean	Controls whether `plugin.json` is the authority for component definitions (default: true). See Strict mode below.

Component configuration fields:

Field	Type	Description
`commands`	string\|array	Custom paths to command files or directories
`agents`	string\|array	Custom paths to agent files
`hooks`	string\|object	Custom hooks configuration or path to hooks file
`mcpServers`	string\|object	MCP server configurations or path to MCP config
`lspServers`	string\|object	LSP server configurations or path to LSP config

Plugin sources

Plugin sources tell Claude Code where to fetch each individual plugin listed in your marketplace. These are set in the source field of each plugin entry in marketplace.json. Once a plugin is cloned or copied into the local machine, it is copied into the local versioned plugin cache at ~/.claude/plugins/cache.

Source	Type	Fields	Notes
Relative path	`string` (e.g. `"./my-plugin"`)	none	Local directory within the marketplace repo. Must start with `./`. Resolved relative to the marketplace root, not the `.claude-plugin/` directory
`github`	object	`repo`, `ref?`, `sha?`
`url`	object	`url`, `ref?`, `sha?`	Git URL source
`git-subdir`	object	`url`, `path`, `ref?`, `sha?`	Subdirectory within a git repo. Clones sparsely to minimize bandwidth for monorepos
`npm`	object	`package`, `version?`, `registry?`	Installed via `npm install`

Marketplace sources vs plugin sources: These are different concepts that control different things.

Marketplace source — where to fetch the marketplace.json catalog itself. Set when users run /plugin marketplace add or in extraKnownMarketplaces settings. Supports ref (branch/tag) but not sha.
Plugin source — where to fetch an individual plugin listed in the marketplace. Set in the source field of each plugin entry inside marketplace.json. Supports both ref (branch/tag) and sha (exact commit).

For example, a marketplace hosted at acme-corp/plugin-catalog (marketplace source) can list a plugin fetched from acme-corp/code-formatter (plugin source). The marketplace source and plugin source point to different repositories and are pinned independently.

Relative paths

For plugins in the same repository, use a path starting with ./:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": "./plugins/my-plugin"
}

Paths resolve relative to the marketplace root, which is the directory containing .claude-plugin/. In the example above, ./plugins/my-plugin points to <repo>/plugins/my-plugin, even though marketplace.json lives at <repo>/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Do not use ../ to reference paths outside the marketplace root.

Relative paths only work when users add your marketplace via Git (GitHub, GitLab, or git URL). If users add your marketplace via a direct URL to the marketplace.json file, relative paths will not resolve correctly. For URL-based distribution, use GitHub, npm, or git URL sources instead. See Troubleshooting for details.

GitHub repositories

{
  "name": "github-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "github",
    "repo": "owner/plugin-repo"
  }
}

You can pin to a specific branch, tag, or commit:

{
  "name": "github-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "github",
    "repo": "owner/plugin-repo",
    "ref": "v2.0.0",
    "sha": "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0"
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
`repo`	string	Required. GitHub repository in `owner/repo` format
`ref`	string	Optional. Git branch or tag (defaults to repository default branch)
`sha`	string	Optional. Full 40-character git commit SHA to pin to an exact version

Git repositories

{
  "name": "git-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "url",
    "url": "https://gitlab.com/team/plugin.git"
  }
}

You can pin to a specific branch, tag, or commit:

{
  "name": "git-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "url",
    "url": "https://gitlab.com/team/plugin.git",
    "ref": "main",
    "sha": "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0"
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
`url`	string	Required. Full git repository URL (`https://` or `git@`). The `.git` suffix is optional, so Azure DevOps and AWS CodeCommit URLs without the suffix work
`ref`	string	Optional. Git branch or tag (defaults to repository default branch)
`sha`	string	Optional. Full 40-character git commit SHA to pin to an exact version

Git subdirectories

Use git-subdir to point to a plugin that lives inside a subdirectory of a git repository. Claude Code uses a sparse, partial clone to fetch only the subdirectory, minimizing bandwidth for large monorepos.

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "git-subdir",
    "url": "https://github.com/acme-corp/monorepo.git",
    "path": "tools/claude-plugin"
  }
}

You can pin to a specific branch, tag, or commit:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "git-subdir",
    "url": "https://github.com/acme-corp/monorepo.git",
    "path": "tools/claude-plugin",
    "ref": "v2.0.0",
    "sha": "a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9b0"
  }
}

The url field also accepts a GitHub shorthand (owner/repo) or SSH URLs (git@github.com:owner/repo.git).

Field	Type	Description
`url`	string	Required. Git repository URL, GitHub `owner/repo` shorthand, or SSH URL
`path`	string	Required. Subdirectory path within the repo containing the plugin (for example, `"tools/claude-plugin"`)
`ref`	string	Optional. Git branch or tag (defaults to repository default branch)
`sha`	string	Optional. Full 40-character git commit SHA to pin to an exact version

npm packages

Plugins distributed as npm packages are installed using npm install. This works with any package on the public npm registry or a private registry your team hosts.

{
  "name": "my-npm-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "npm",
    "package": "@acme/claude-plugin"
  }
}

To pin to a specific version, add the version field:

{
  "name": "my-npm-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "npm",
    "package": "@acme/claude-plugin",
    "version": "2.1.0"
  }
}

To install from a private or internal registry, add the registry field:

{
  "name": "my-npm-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "npm",
    "package": "@acme/claude-plugin",
    "version": "^2.0.0",
    "registry": "https://npm.example.com"
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
`package`	string	Required. Package name or scoped package (for example, `@org/plugin`)
`version`	string	Optional. Version or version range (for example, `2.1.0`, `^2.0.0`, `~1.5.0`)
`registry`	string	Optional. Custom npm registry URL. Defaults to the system npm registry (typically npmjs.org)

Advanced plugin entries

This example shows a plugin entry using many of the optional fields, including custom paths for commands, agents, hooks, and MCP servers:

{
  "name": "enterprise-tools",
  "source": {
    "source": "github",
    "repo": "company/enterprise-plugin"
  },
  "description": "Enterprise workflow automation tools",
  "version": "2.1.0",
  "author": {
    "name": "Enterprise Team",
    "email": "enterprise@example.com"
  },
  "homepage": "https://docs.example.com/plugins/enterprise-tools",
  "repository": "https://github.com/company/enterprise-plugin",
  "license": "MIT",
  "keywords": ["enterprise", "workflow", "automation"],
  "category": "productivity",
  "commands": [
    "./commands/core/",
    "./commands/enterprise/",
    "./commands/experimental/preview.md"
  ],
  "agents": ["./agents/security-reviewer.md", "./agents/compliance-checker.md"],
  "hooks": {
    "PostToolUse": [
      {
        "matcher": "Write|Edit",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/validate.sh"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "mcpServers": {
    "enterprise-db": {
      "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/servers/db-server",
      "args": ["--config", "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/config.json"]
    }
  },
  "strict": false
}

Key things to notice:

commands and agents: You can specify multiple directories or individual files. Paths are relative to the plugin root.
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}: use this variable in hooks and MCP server configs to reference files within the plugin’s installation directory. This is necessary because plugins are copied to a cache location when installed. For dependencies or state that should survive plugin updates, use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA} instead.
strict: false: Since this is set to false, the plugin doesn’t need its own plugin.json. The marketplace entry defines everything. See Strict mode below.

Strict mode

The strict field controls whether plugin.json is the authority for component definitions (commands, agents, hooks, skills, MCP servers, output styles).

Value	Behavior
`true` (default)	`plugin.json` is the authority. The marketplace entry can supplement it with additional components, and both sources are merged.
`false`	The marketplace entry is the entire definition. If the plugin also has a `plugin.json` that declares components, that’s a conflict and the plugin fails to load.

When to use each mode:

strict: true: the plugin has its own plugin.json and manages its own components. The marketplace entry can add extra commands or hooks on top. This is the default and works for most plugins.
strict: false: the marketplace operator wants full control. The plugin repo provides raw files, and the marketplace entry defines which of those files are exposed as commands, agents, hooks, etc. Useful when the marketplace restructures or curates a plugin’s components differently than the plugin author intended.

Host and distribute marketplaces

Host on GitHub (recommended)

GitHub provides the easiest distribution method:

Create a repository: Set up a new repository for your marketplace
Add marketplace file: Create .claude-plugin/marketplace.json with your plugin definitions
Share with teams: Users add your marketplace with /plugin marketplace add owner/repo

Benefits: Built-in version control, issue tracking, and team collaboration features.

Host on other git services

Any git hosting service works, such as GitLab, Bitbucket, and self-hosted servers. Users add with the full repository URL:

/plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.com/company/plugins.git

Private repositories

Claude Code supports installing plugins from private repositories. For manual installation and updates, Claude Code uses your existing git credential helpers. If git clone works for a private repository in your terminal, it works in Claude Code too. Common credential helpers include gh auth login for GitHub, macOS Keychain, and git-credential-store. Background auto-updates run at startup without credential helpers, since interactive prompts would block Claude Code from starting. To enable auto-updates for private marketplaces, set the appropriate authentication token in your environment:

Provider	Environment variables	Notes
GitHub	`GITHUB_TOKEN` or `GH_TOKEN`	Personal access token or GitHub App token
GitLab	`GITLAB_TOKEN` or `GL_TOKEN`	Personal access token or project token
Bitbucket	`BITBUCKET_TOKEN`	App password or repository access token

Set the token in your shell configuration (for example, .bashrc, .zshrc) or pass it when running Claude Code:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For CI/CD environments, configure the token as a secret environment variable. GitHub Actions automatically provides GITHUB_TOKEN for repositories in the same organization.

Test locally before distribution

Test your marketplace locally before sharing:

/plugin marketplace add ./my-local-marketplace
/plugin install test-plugin@my-local-marketplace

For the full range of add commands (GitHub, Git URLs, local paths, remote URLs), see Add marketplaces.

Require marketplaces for your team

You can configure your repository so team members are automatically prompted to install your marketplace when they trust the project folder. Add your marketplace to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "company-tools": {
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "your-org/claude-plugins"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can also specify which plugins should be enabled by default:

{
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "code-formatter@company-tools": true,
    "deployment-tools@company-tools": true
  }
}

For full configuration options, see Plugin settings.

If you use a local directory or file source with a relative path, the path resolves against your repository’s main checkout. When you run Claude Code from a git worktree, the path still points at the main checkout, so all worktrees share the same marketplace location. Marketplace state is stored once per user in ~/.claude/plugins/known_marketplaces.json, not per project.

Pre-populate plugins for containers

For container images and CI environments, you can pre-populate a plugins directory at build time so Claude Code starts with marketplaces and plugins already available, without cloning anything at runtime. Set the CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR environment variable to point at this directory. To layer multiple seed directories, separate paths with : on Unix or ; on Windows. Claude Code searches each directory in order, and the first seed that contains a given marketplace or plugin cache wins. The seed directory mirrors the structure of ~/.claude/plugins:

$CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR/
  known_marketplaces.json
  marketplaces/<name>/...
  cache/<marketplace>/<plugin>/<version>/...

To build a seed directory, run Claude Code once during image build, install the plugins you need, then copy the resulting ~/.claude/plugins directory into your image and point CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR at it. To skip the copy step, set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR to your target seed path during the build so plugins install directly there:

CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR=/opt/claude-seed claude plugin marketplace add your-org/plugins
CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_CACHE_DIR=/opt/claude-seed claude plugin install my-tool@your-plugins

Then set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR=/opt/claude-seed in your container’s runtime environment so Claude Code reads from the seed on startup. At startup, Claude Code registers marketplaces found in the seed’s known_marketplaces.json into the primary configuration, and uses plugin caches found under cache/ in place without re-cloning. This works in both interactive mode and non-interactive mode with the -p flag. Behavior details:

Read-only: the seed directory is never written to. Auto-updates are disabled for seed marketplaces since git pull would fail on a read-only filesystem.
Seed entries take precedence: marketplaces declared in the seed overwrite any matching entries in the user’s configuration on each startup. To opt out of a seed plugin, use /plugin disable rather than removing the marketplace.
Path resolution: Claude Code locates marketplace content by probing $CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR/marketplaces/<name>/ at runtime, not by trusting paths stored inside the seed’s JSON. This means the seed works correctly even when mounted at a different path than where it was built.
Mutation is blocked: running /plugin marketplace remove or /plugin marketplace update against a seed-managed marketplace fails with guidance to ask your administrator to update the seed image.
Composes with settings: if extraKnownMarketplaces or enabledPlugins declare a marketplace that already exists in the seed, Claude Code uses the seed copy instead of cloning.

Managed marketplace restrictions

For organizations requiring strict control over plugin sources, administrators can restrict which plugin marketplaces users are allowed to add using the strictKnownMarketplaces setting in managed settings. When strictKnownMarketplaces is configured in managed settings, the restriction behavior depends on the value:

Value	Behavior
Undefined (default)	No restrictions. Users can add any marketplace
Empty array `[]`	Complete lockdown. Users cannot add any new marketplaces
List of sources	Users can only add marketplaces that match the allowlist exactly

Common configurations

Disable all marketplace additions:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": []
}

Allow specific marketplaces only:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    {
      "source": "github",
      "repo": "acme-corp/approved-plugins"
    },
    {
      "source": "github",
      "repo": "acme-corp/security-tools",
      "ref": "v2.0"
    },
    {
      "source": "url",
      "url": "https://plugins.example.com/marketplace.json"
    }
  ]
}

Allow all marketplaces from an internal git server using regex pattern matching on the host. This is the recommended approach for GitHub Enterprise Server or self-hosted GitLab instances:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    {
      "source": "hostPattern",
      "hostPattern": "^github\\.example\\.com$"
    }
  ]
}

Allow filesystem-based marketplaces from a specific directory using regex pattern matching on the path:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    {
      "source": "pathPattern",
      "pathPattern": "^/opt/approved/"
    }
  ]
}

Use ".*" as the pathPattern to allow any filesystem path while still controlling network sources with hostPattern.

strictKnownMarketplaces restricts what users can add, but does not register marketplaces on its own. To make allowed marketplaces available automatically without users running /plugin marketplace add, pair it with extraKnownMarketplaces in the same managed-settings.json. See Using both together.

How restrictions work

Restrictions are validated early in the plugin installation process, before any network requests or filesystem operations occur. This prevents unauthorized marketplace access attempts. The allowlist uses exact matching for most source types. For a marketplace to be allowed, all specified fields must match exactly:

For GitHub sources: repo is required, and ref or path must also match if specified in the allowlist
For URL sources: the full URL must match exactly
For hostPattern sources: the marketplace host is matched against the regex pattern
For pathPattern sources: the marketplace’s filesystem path is matched against the regex pattern

Because strictKnownMarketplaces is set in managed settings, individual users and project configurations cannot override these restrictions. For complete configuration details including all supported source types and comparison with extraKnownMarketplaces, see the strictKnownMarketplaces reference.

Version resolution and release channels

Plugin versions determine cache paths and update detection. You can specify the version in the plugin manifest (plugin.json) or in the marketplace entry (marketplace.json).

When possible, avoid setting the version in both places. The plugin manifest always wins silently, which can cause the marketplace version to be ignored. For relative-path plugins, set the version in the marketplace entry. For all other plugin sources, set it in the plugin manifest.

Set up release channels

To support “stable” and “latest” release channels for your plugins, you can set up two marketplaces that point to different refs or SHAs of the same repo. You can then assign the two marketplaces to different user groups through managed settings.

The plugin’s plugin.json must declare a different version at each pinned ref or commit. If two refs or commits have the same manifest version, Claude Code treats them as identical and skips the update.

Example

{
  "name": "stable-tools",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "code-formatter",
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "acme-corp/code-formatter",
        "ref": "stable"
      }
    }
  ]
}

{
  "name": "latest-tools",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "code-formatter",
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "acme-corp/code-formatter",
        "ref": "latest"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Assign channels to user groups

Assign each marketplace to the appropriate user group through managed settings. For example, the stable group receives:

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "stable-tools": {
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "acme-corp/stable-tools"
      }
    }
  }
}

The early-access group receives latest-tools instead:

{
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "latest-tools": {
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "acme-corp/latest-tools"
      }
    }
  }
}

Validation and testing

Test your marketplace before sharing. Validate your marketplace JSON syntax:

claude plugin validate .

Or from within Claude Code:

/plugin validate .

Add the marketplace for testing:

/plugin marketplace add ./path/to/marketplace

Install a test plugin to verify everything works:

/plugin install test-plugin@marketplace-name

For complete plugin testing workflows, see Test your plugins locally. For technical troubleshooting, see Plugins reference.

Manage marketplaces from the CLI

Claude Code provides non-interactive claude plugin marketplace subcommands for scripting and automation. These are equivalent to the /plugin marketplace commands available inside an interactive session.

Plugin marketplace add

Add a marketplace from a GitHub repository, git URL, remote URL, or local path.

claude plugin marketplace add <source> [options]

Arguments:

<source>: GitHub owner/repo shorthand, git URL, remote URL to a marketplace.json file, or local directory path. To pin to a branch or tag, append @ref to the GitHub shorthand or #ref to a git URL

Options:

Option	Description	Default
`--scope <scope>`	Where to declare the marketplace: `user`, `project`, or `local`. See Plugin installation scopes	`user`
`--sparse <paths...>`	Limit checkout to specific directories via git sparse-checkout. Useful for monorepos

Add a marketplace from GitHub using owner/repo shorthand:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins

Pin to a specific branch or tag with @ref:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins@v2.0

Add from a git URL on a non-GitHub host:

claude plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.example.com/team/plugins.git

Add from a remote URL that serves the marketplace.json file directly:

claude plugin marketplace add https://example.com/marketplace.json

Add from a local directory for testing:

claude plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace

Declare the marketplace at project scope so it is shared with your team via .claude/settings.json:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins --scope project

For a monorepo, limit the checkout to the directories that contain plugin content:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/monorepo --sparse .claude-plugin plugins

Plugin marketplace list

List all configured marketplaces.

claude plugin marketplace list [options]

Options:

Option	Description
`--json`	Output as JSON

Plugin marketplace remove

Remove a configured marketplace. The alias rm is also accepted.

claude plugin marketplace remove <name>

Arguments:

<name>: marketplace name to remove, as shown by claude plugin marketplace list. This is the name from marketplace.json, not the source you passed to add

Removing a marketplace also uninstalls any plugins you installed from it. To refresh a marketplace without losing installed plugins, use claude plugin marketplace update instead.

Plugin marketplace update

Refresh marketplaces from their sources to retrieve new plugins and version changes.

claude plugin marketplace update [name]

Arguments:

[name]: marketplace name to update, as shown by claude plugin marketplace list. Updates all marketplaces if omitted

Both remove and update fail when run against a seed-managed marketplace, which is read-only. When updating all marketplaces, seed-managed entries are skipped and other marketplaces still update. To change seed-provided plugins, ask your administrator to update the seed image. See Pre-populate plugins for containers.

Troubleshooting

Marketplace not loading

Symptoms: Can’t add marketplace or see plugins from it Solutions:

Verify the marketplace URL is accessible
Check that .claude-plugin/marketplace.json exists at the specified path
Ensure JSON syntax is valid and frontmatter is well-formed using claude plugin validate or /plugin validate
For private repositories, confirm you have access permissions

Marketplace validation errors

Run claude plugin validate . or /plugin validate . from your marketplace directory to check for issues. The validator checks plugin.json, skill/agent/command frontmatter, and hooks/hooks.json for syntax and schema errors. Common errors:

Error	Cause	Solution
`File not found: .claude-plugin/marketplace.json`	Missing manifest	Create `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` with required fields
`Invalid JSON syntax: Unexpected token...`	JSON syntax error in marketplace.json	Check for missing commas, extra commas, or unquoted strings
`Duplicate plugin name "x" found in marketplace`	Two plugins share the same name	Give each plugin a unique `name` value
`plugins[0].source: Path contains ".."`	Source path contains `..`	Use paths relative to the marketplace root without `..`. See Relative paths
`YAML frontmatter failed to parse: ...`	Invalid YAML in a skill, agent, or command file	Fix the YAML syntax in the frontmatter block. At runtime this file loads with no metadata.
`Invalid JSON syntax: ...` (hooks.json)	Malformed `hooks/hooks.json`	Fix JSON syntax. A malformed `hooks/hooks.json` prevents the entire plugin from loading.

Warnings (non-blocking):

Marketplace has no plugins defined: add at least one plugin to the plugins array
No marketplace description provided: add metadata.description to help users understand your marketplace
Plugin name "x" is not kebab-case: the plugin name contains uppercase letters, spaces, or special characters. Rename to lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens only (for example, my-plugin). Claude Code accepts other forms, but the Claude.ai marketplace sync rejects them.

Plugin installation failures

Symptoms: Marketplace appears but plugin installation fails Solutions:

Verify plugin source URLs are accessible
Check that plugin directories contain required files
For GitHub sources, ensure repositories are public or you have access
Test plugin sources manually by cloning/downloading

Private repository authentication fails

Symptoms: Authentication errors when installing plugins from private repositories Solutions: For manual installation and updates:

Verify you’re authenticated with your git provider (for example, run gh auth status for GitHub)
Check that your credential helper is configured correctly: git config --global credential.helper
Try cloning the repository manually to verify your credentials work

For background auto-updates:

Set the appropriate token in your environment: echo $GITHUB_TOKEN
Check that the token has the required permissions (read access to the repository)
For GitHub, ensure the token has the repo scope for private repositories
For GitLab, ensure the token has at least read_repository scope
Verify the token hasn’t expired

Marketplace updates fail in offline environments

Symptoms: Marketplace git pull fails and Claude Code wipes the existing cache, causing plugins to become unavailable. Cause: By default, when a git pull fails, Claude Code removes the stale clone and attempts to re-clone. In offline or airgapped environments, re-cloning fails the same way, leaving the marketplace directory empty. Solution: Set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1 to keep the existing cache when the pull fails instead of wiping it:

export CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1

With this variable set, Claude Code retains the stale marketplace clone on git pull failure and continues using the last-known-good state. For fully offline deployments where the repository will never be reachable, use CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_SEED_DIR to pre-populate the plugins directory at build time instead.

Git operations time out

Symptoms: Plugin installation or marketplace updates fail with a timeout error like “Git clone timed out after 120s” or “Git pull timed out after 120s”. Cause: Claude Code uses a 120-second timeout for all git operations, including cloning plugin repositories and pulling marketplace updates. Large repositories or slow network connections may exceed this limit. Solution: Increase the timeout using the CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_GIT_TIMEOUT_MS environment variable. The value is in milliseconds:

export CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_GIT_TIMEOUT_MS=300000  # 5 minutes

Plugins with relative paths fail in URL-based marketplaces

Symptoms: Added a marketplace via URL (such as https://example.com/marketplace.json), but plugins with relative path sources like "./plugins/my-plugin" fail to install with “path not found” errors. Cause: URL-based marketplaces only download the marketplace.json file itself. They do not download plugin files from the server. Relative paths in the marketplace entry reference files on the remote server that were not downloaded. Solutions:

Use external sources: Change plugin entries to use GitHub, npm, or git URL sources instead of relative paths:
```
{ "name": "my-plugin", "source": { "source": "github", "repo": "owner/repo" } }
```
Use a Git-based marketplace: Host your marketplace in a Git repository and add it with the git URL. Git-based marketplaces clone the entire repository, making relative paths work correctly.

Files not found after installation

Symptoms: Plugin installs but references to files fail, especially files outside the plugin directory Cause: Plugins are copied to a cache directory rather than used in-place. Paths that reference files outside the plugin’s directory (such as ../shared-utils) won’t work because those files aren’t copied. Solutions: See Plugin caching and file resolution for workarounds including symlinks and directory restructuring. For additional debugging tools and common issues, see Debugging and development tools.

Administration

​Overview

​Walkthrough: create a local marketplace

​Create the marketplace file

​Marketplace schema

​Required fields

​Owner fields

​Optional metadata

​Plugin entries

​Required fields

​Optional plugin fields

​Plugin sources

​Relative paths

​GitHub repositories

​Git repositories

​Git subdirectories

​npm packages

​Advanced plugin entries

​Strict mode

​Host and distribute marketplaces

​Host on GitHub (recommended)

​Host on other git services

​Private repositories

​Test locally before distribution

​Require marketplaces for your team

​Pre-populate plugins for containers

​Managed marketplace restrictions

​Common configurations

​How restrictions work

​Version resolution and release channels

​Set up release channels

Example

Assign channels to user groups

​Validation and testing

​Manage marketplaces from the CLI

​Plugin marketplace add

​Plugin marketplace list

​Plugin marketplace remove

​Plugin marketplace update

​Troubleshooting

​Marketplace not loading

​Marketplace validation errors

​Plugin installation failures

​Private repository authentication fails

​Marketplace updates fail in offline environments

​Git operations time out

​Plugins with relative paths fail in URL-based marketplaces

​Files not found after installation

​See also

Overview

Walkthrough: create a local marketplace

Create the marketplace file

Marketplace schema

Required fields

Owner fields

Optional metadata

Plugin entries

Required fields

Optional plugin fields

Plugin sources

Relative paths

GitHub repositories

Git repositories

Git subdirectories

npm packages

Advanced plugin entries

Strict mode

Host and distribute marketplaces

Host on GitHub (recommended)

Host on other git services

Private repositories

Test locally before distribution

Require marketplaces for your team

Pre-populate plugins for containers

Managed marketplace restrictions

Common configurations

How restrictions work

Version resolution and release channels

Set up release channels

Validation and testing

Manage marketplaces from the CLI

Plugin marketplace add

Plugin marketplace list

Plugin marketplace remove

Plugin marketplace update

Troubleshooting

Marketplace not loading

Marketplace validation errors

Plugin installation failures

Private repository authentication fails

Marketplace updates fail in offline environments

Git operations time out

Plugins with relative paths fail in URL-based marketplaces

Files not found after installation

See also