Create and distribute a plugin marketplace

Build and host plugin marketplaces to distribute Claude Code extensions across teams and communities.

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, including git repositories and local paths. 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:

1. Create plugins: build one or more plugins with skills, 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.
2. Create the marketplace file: define a marketplace.json that lists your plugins and where to find them. See Create the marketplace file.
3. Host the marketplace: push to GitHub, GitLab, or another git host. See Host and distribute marketplaces.
4. 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.

1. 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
   
2. 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
   ---
   
   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.
   
3. 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",
     "author": {
       "name": "Your Name"
     }
   }
   

   Setting version means users only receive updates when you change this field, so bump it on every release. A plugin with a command source isn’t pinned by this field. If you omit version, the version comes from the next source in version management.

4. 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"
       }
     ]
   }
   
5. Add and install

   From the directory that contains my-marketplace, start Claude Code and run the following commands. The install command opens a plugin details view where you select an installation scope to confirm the install. Check the install summary: if it reports Run /reload-plugins to activate., run that command.

   /plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace
   /plugin install quality-review-plugin@my-plugins
   
6. Try it out

   Select some code in your editor and run your new skill. Plugin skills are namespaced with the plugin name.

   /quality-review-plugin: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, except for a command source in link mode, which is used in place. Copied 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. 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 a source that tells Claude Code where to fetch it from. See the full schema below for all available fields.

{
  "name": "company-tools",
  "owner": {
    "name": "DevTools Team",
    "email": "[e-mail]"
  },
  "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). Each user can register only one marketplace per name: adding a second marketplace with the same name replaces the first. To publish multiple plugins under one marketplace name, list them all in a single marketplace.json.	"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 can’t be used by third-party marketplaces: claude-code-marketplace, claude-code-plugins, claude-plugins-official, claude-plugins-community, claude-community, anthropic-marketplace, anthropic-plugins, agent-skills, anthropic-agent-skills, knowledge-work-plugins, life-sciences, claude-for-legal, claude-for-financial-services, financial-services-plugins, first-party-plugins, healthcare. Names that impersonate official marketplaces, such as official-claude-plugins or anthropic-plugins-v2, are also blocked. Reserving these names prevents a third-party marketplace from presenting itself as an Anthropic-published source.

Claude Code re-checks reserved names every time it loads a marketplace, not only when you add one. A marketplace that was registered under one of these names before the name became reserved stops loading and reports that it is registered from an untrusted source. Remove that marketplace and re-add it from the official Anthropic source. A third-party marketplace affected by a newly reserved name loads again as soon as you re-add it under a different name. Before v2.1.205, first-party-plugins and healthcare weren’t reserved, and a marketplace already registered under a reserved name kept loading.

Owner fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Name of the maintainer or team
email	string	No	Contact email for the maintainer
url	string	No	Website, GitHub profile, or organization URL

Optional fields

Field	Type	Description
$schema	string	JSON Schema URL for editor autocomplete and validation. Claude Code ignores this field at load time.
description	string	Brief marketplace description
version	string	Marketplace manifest version
metadata.pluginRoot	string	Directory that Claude Code resolves bare plugin source names under. See Relative paths. Requires Claude Code v2.1.239 or later.
allowCrossMarketplaceDependenciesOn	array	Other marketplaces that plugins in this marketplace may depend on. Dependencies from a marketplace not listed here are blocked at install. See Depend on a plugin from another marketplace.
renames	object	Map from a former plugin name to its current name, or to null if the plugin was removed. Lets existing users migrate automatically when you rename or remove an entry in plugins. See Rename or remove a plugin. Requires Claude Code v2.1.193 or later.

description and version are also accepted under metadata for backward compatibility.

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, such as description, version, author, commands, and hooks, plus these marketplace-specific fields: source, category, tags, strict, and relevance.

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
displayName	string	Human-readable name shown in UI surfaces. Falls back to name when omitted. May contain spaces and any casing. Not used for namespacing or lookup.
description	string	Brief plugin description
version	string	Plugin version. If set (here or in plugin.json), the plugin is pinned to this string and users only receive updates when it changes. A plugin with a command source isn’t pinned by either field. If set in neither place, the version comes from the next source in version management.
author	object	Plugin author information (name required; email and url 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
metadata	object	Free-form object for your own fields, such as entitlement or catalog data. Claude Code doesn’t read it. Before v2.1.222, claude plugin validate reported the key as an unrecognized field.
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.
relevance	object	Signals that tell Claude Code when to suggest this plugin to users. Takes effect only for marketplaces an administrator allowlists in managed settings. See Recommend plugins for your org. Requires Claude Code v2.1.152 or later.
defaultEnabled	boolean	Whether the plugin is enabled after install (default: true). Set to false to install the plugin disabled until the user opts in. Takes precedence over the same field in the plugin’s plugin.json. See Default enablement. Requires Claude Code v2.1.154 or later.

Component configuration fields:

Field	Type	Description
skills	string|array	Custom paths to skill directories containing <name>/SKILL.md
commands	string|array	Custom paths to flat .md skill 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 get each individual plugin listed in your marketplace. These are set in the source field of each plugin entry in marketplace.json.

Claude Code copies each installed plugin into the local versioned plugin cache at ~/.claude/plugins/cache, except for a command source in link mode, which Claude Code uses in place. Claude Code also installs the plugin’s eligible Node.js package dependencies into the cached copy.

Source	Type	Fields	Notes
Relative path	string (e.g. "./my-plugin")	none	Local directory within the marketplace repo. Must start with ./, unless you write a bare name under metadata.pluginRoot. Claude Code resolves the path 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
archive	object	url, sha256?	Zip archive downloaded over HTTPS. Works without git or npm on the user’s machine. Requires Claude Code v2.1.224 or later
command	object	command, timeout?, mode?	Plugin directory produced by running a local command, re-run once per session to pick up changes. Requires Claude Code v2.1.229 or later

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. Git-based marketplace sources support 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. Git-based plugin sources support 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.

The git-based source types below are github, url, and git-subdir. When both ref and sha are set on any of them, the sha is the effective pin. Claude Code fetches and checks out the pinned commit directly.

On most git hosts, including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, this means installation succeeds even if the branch or tag named by ref has since been deleted upstream, as long as the commit is still reachable from the repository. Some servers, such as AWS CodeCommit, don’t support fetching commits by SHA. On those servers the ref must still exist and the pinned commit must be reachable from it.

If you distribute this marketplace through Organization settings > Plugins on a Team or Enterprise plan, different source rules apply:

• The marketplace repository must be private or internal. Organization sync reads it through the Claude GitHub App or your organization’s GitHub Enterprise App.
• Each plugin source must be of type github, url, or git-subdir, or a relative path within the marketplace repository.
• A plugin source can be private in two cases: a github.com source that shares the marketplace repository’s owner, or a source on your organization’s GitHub Enterprise host with the GHE App installed on the repository. Organization sync fetches every other source without credentials, so github.com repositories under a different owner and repositories on other hosts, such as GitLab or Bitbucket, must be public.

To include private plugins, place the plugin folders inside the marketplace repository and reference them with a relative path. Organization sync packages each plugin during distribution, so users never need access to a separate source repository. See Manage plugins for your organization for the admin workflow.

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. Don’t use ../ to reference paths outside the marketplace root.

A bare name is a single directory name with no /, such as "formatter". To write bare names instead of ./ paths, set metadata.pluginRoot to the directory they resolve under. With "pluginRoot": "./plugins", Claude Code resolves "source": "formatter" to ./plugins/formatter. Requires Claude Code v2.1.239 or later.

metadata.pluginRoot must itself be a relative path inside the marketplace. Claude Code ignores it for a source that already starts with ./. A source that contains a /, such as team-a/formatter, isn’t a bare name and still needs the ./ prefix, even when metadata.pluginRoot is set.

Claude Code resolves relative paths against a local copy of the marketplace, so they work when users add your marketplace from a git source or a local directory. If users add your marketplace via a direct URL to the marketplace.json file, relative paths won’t resolve, because Claude Code downloads only that file. For URL-based distribution, use any other plugin source 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 ([e-mail]: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)

Zip archives

Use archive to distribute a plugin as a zip file that Claude Code downloads over HTTPS, so installs work without git or npm on the user’s machine. Host the file on any static file server or artifact repository, such as an S3 bucket, an Artifactory generic repository, or nginx. Requires Claude Code v2.1.224 or later. On versions v2.1.120 through v2.1.223, installing the plugin fails with This plugin uses a source type your Claude Code version does not support. Update Claude Code and try again.; on older versions, a marketplace containing an archive entry fails to load entirely.

This entry installs the plugin from a zip file on an artifact server:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "archive",
    "url": "https://artifacts.example.com/claude-plugins/my-plugin-2.1.0.zip"
  }
}

When you build the zip, you can zip the plugin’s contents directly or zip the plugin folder itself. Claude Code looks for .claude-plugin/ at the top of the archive, then inside a single top-level folder, so both layouts install:

my-plugin.zip          my-plugin.zip
├── .claude-plugin/    └── my-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json        ├── .claude-plugin/
└── commands/              │   └── plugin.json
                           └── commands/

Claude Code doesn’t look deeper than one folder, so a plugin nested further down fails to install. Claude Code refuses archives larger than 256 MiB.

To pin the exact file, add a sha256 field with the archive’s digest:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "archive",
    "url": "https://artifacts.example.com/claude-plugins/my-plugin-2.1.0.zip",
    "sha256": "6bfa50e3d2e00c052b46abe51fff89346ac803e45771f76dcf6df1ab74cca5e1"
  }
}

If the downloaded file doesn’t match the pin, Claude Code refuses the install and reports Plugin archive integrity check failed.

Archive sources accept these fields:

Field	Type	Description
url	string	Required. HTTPS URL of the zip archive. Claude Code rejects http:// URLs, along with loopback, link-local, and cloud-metadata hosts. Every redirect hop must satisfy the same rules, or Claude Code refuses the download
sha256	string	Optional. SHA-256 digest of the archive as 64 hex characters, uppercase or lowercase. Claude Code verifies every download against it and refuses the install on a mismatch

The sha256 digest also serves as the plugin’s version when neither plugin.json nor the marketplace entry declares one. See Version management. If you declare a version, that version string is the update signal, so after changing the zip and its digest, bump the version too, or users keep the cached copy.

If you register the marketplace from a URL source with headers, such as an extraKnownMarketplaces entry, Claude Code sends those headers with archive downloads whose URL shares the marketplace URL’s origin: the same scheme, host, and port. Claude Code downloads an archive on a different origin without the headers, and drops them when a redirect leaves the origin, so it never sends a marketplace credential to a third-party host.

Command sources

Use command when a locally installed tool produces the plugin directory, such as an IDE that renders its plugin for the currently selected toolchain. Claude Code runs the command when the user installs the plugin and re-runs it in the background once per session, so your users pick up the tool’s changed output without reinstalling. Requires Claude Code v2.1.229 or later. On v2.1.120 through v2.1.228, installing the plugin fails with This plugin uses a source type your Claude Code version does not support. Update Claude Code and try again., and on older versions the whole marketplace fails to load.

This entry installs the plugin from whatever directory the tool prints:

{
  "name": "my-plugin",
  "source": {
    "source": "command",
    "command": "my-tool claude-plugin-path"
  }
}

Claude Code runs the command through the platform shell, sh on macOS and Linux or cmd.exe on Windows, from the user’s home directory. The command must print exactly one line on stdout and exit with code 0. That line is the absolute path of a directory that contains the complete plugin by the time the command exits, and the path may change between runs.

Claude Code stops a command that runs longer than timeout seconds, and the install or update fails. Claude Code also refuses the printed path in these cases, and the install or update fails the same way:

• The directory has no plugin content at its top level, such as a .claude-plugin/ directory or a skills/, commands/, agents/, or hooks/ directory
• The directory is the one Claude Code was started in, or one of its parents
• On Windows, the path is a UNC path

Command sources accept these fields:

Field	Type	Description
command	string	Required. Shell command that prints the plugin directory’s absolute path as a single line on stdout and exits 0. Must be printable ASCII, at most 500 characters, with no runs of four or more spaces, so users can review the whole command they’re asked to accept
timeout	number	Optional. Whole number of seconds to wait for the command before giving up (default: 60, maximum: 600)
mode	string	Optional. "copy" (default) copies the printed directory into the plugin cache. "link" uses the printed directory in place. See Copy mode and link mode

Copy mode and link mode

With the default "mode": "copy", Claude Code copies the printed directory into the versioned plugin cache and derives the plugin version from a hash of the directory’s contents. Your tool can delete or rewrite the directory after the command exits, and a re-run that produces identical content counts as up to date. Claude Code refuses to install a directory larger than 256 MiB or containing more than 20,000 entries.

Set "mode": "link" for large plugin directories that shouldn’t be copied, such as a rendered SDK export. Claude Code fills the plugin’s cache entry with a link to each top-level entry of the printed directory and uses the files in place, so nothing is copied, file contents aren’t hashed, and the size limits don’t apply. The install fails if a top-level entry is a symlink that points outside the printed directory. Claude Code also skips the Node.js package dependency install for a link-mode plugin, so print a directory that already contains any node_modules the plugin needs.

Keep the printed directory in place for as long as the plugin stays installed, because Claude Code loads the plugin through those links at every startup. Claude Code derives the plugin version from the printed directory’s real path and its top-level entries, not the files inside, so print a different path to signal new content. In a session started in the printed directory or anywhere below it, Claude Code doesn’t load the plugin at all.

Claude Code doesn’t support link mode on Windows and refuses to install a link-mode plugin there. Declare "mode": "copy" instead.

How users accept the command

Claude Code runs your command on the user’s machine, so it binds every run to the user’s explicit acceptance:

• When users install the plugin from its details screen in /plugin, or install or update it with claude plugin install or claude plugin update in an interactive terminal, Claude Code shows them the exact command string first and records the accepted command for that installation. In a non-interactive shell, such as a provisioning script, pass --yes to claude plugin install or claude plugin update to accept the command it prints.
• Every other path runs only the command the user already accepted. This includes updates started from /plugin and the background runs described in When Claude Code re-runs the command. When none was accepted, Claude Code refuses to run the command and tells the user how to review it. Claude Code never installs a command-sourced plugin as a dependency of another plugin, so users install it themselves first.
• If you change the entry’s command, or switch its mode, users keep the version they already have and Claude Code stops re-running the command. In interactive sessions, the /plugin Errors tab shows the new command until the user reviews and accepts it by running claude plugin update <plugin>@<marketplace>.

Administrators can block command sources across an organization with the managed setting disableCommandPluginSources. If an organization sets allowManagedHooksOnly, Claude Code blocks command sources by default.

When Claude Code re-runs the command

The printed directory reflects the tool’s state at the time the command ran, so Claude Code runs the command again at these times:

• Every time the user installs or updates the plugin
• Once per session for each enabled command-sourced plugin, in the background, shortly after the session starts. This run doesn’t go through marketplace auto-update, so it doesn’t depend on the marketplace’s auto-update setting
• At startup or on /reload-plugins, when an enabled plugin’s installed version is missing from the plugin cache

Claude Code skips the two background runs when the user sets CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC. Explicit installs and updates still run the command with that variable set.

When the command’s hashed output has changed, Claude Code installs the result as a new version and reloads it in the running interactive session, switching the same components that /reload-plugins switches. The user sees a notification that the plugin was reloaded. If reloading in place would invalidate the session’s prompt cache, Claude Code instead prompts the user to run /reload-plugins, which warns about the cache cost and applies when rerun with --force.

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": "[e-mail]"
  },
  "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 hook commands and MCP server configs to reference files within the plugin’s installation directory.
  • See the substitution table for which config fields substitute it per server type
  • 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.

By default, a plugin’s skills load from the skills/ directory under its source. Paths listed in the skills field add to that scan:

"skills": ["./skills/", "./extra-skills/"]

When several plugin entries share one skills/ folder at the marketplace root (source: "./"), list specific subdirectories instead so each entry loads only its own skills:

"source": "./",
"skills": ["./skills/code-review", "./skills/docs"]

With a marketplace-root source, the listed paths are the complete set for that entry, and other directories in the shared skills/ folder don’t load. Listing ./skills/ itself, or the plugin root, keeps the full scan. If none of the listed paths exist, the default scan runs instead.

Strict mode

The strict field controls whether plugin.json is the authority for component definitions (skills, agents, hooks, 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 skills 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 skills, 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 is the recommended way to host and distribute a marketplace:

1. Create a repository: set up a new repository for your marketplace
2. Add marketplace file: create .claude-plugin/marketplace.json with your plugin definitions
3. 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. If you distribute your marketplace through Organization settings > Plugins instead, your git credentials aren’t involved: organization sync reads the marketplace repository through the Claude GitHub App or your organization’s GitHub Enterprise App, and a plugin source it can’t authenticate to must be public. The note under Plugin sources has the full rules.

Commands you run

When you run /plugin marketplace add, /plugin install, /plugin update, or /plugin marketplace update, Claude Code uses your existing git credential helpers, so HTTPS access via gh auth login, macOS Keychain, or git-credential-store works the same as in your terminal. SSH access works as long as the host is already in your known_hosts file and the key is loaded in ssh-agent, since Claude Code suppresses interactive SSH prompts for the host fingerprint and key passphrase. GitHub owner/repo shorthand sources clone over SSH by default; set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_PREFER_HTTPS=1 to clone them over HTTPS instead.

Background auto-updates

By default, the background refresh disables git credential helpers for its git pull, so the pull can’t authenticate to private repositories over HTTPS even when a helper is configured. SSH remotes aren’t affected: a key loaded in ssh-agent authenticates background pulls the same way as the commands you run. When the background pull fails, Claude Code falls back to re-cloning the marketplace from scratch. The re-clone does use your stored git credentials, but it can time out on large repositories, so private-marketplace auto-updates may fail intermittently.

Two settings make private marketplaces behave predictably:

• Set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1 to keep the existing clone when the background pull fails, instead of deleting and re-cloning. Your plugins keep working from the last synced state, and manual updates with /plugin marketplace update still pull with your credentials.
• Configure a git credential helper, for example with gh auth setup-git for GitHub, so the re-clone fallback can authenticate without prompting.

Setting a provider token such as GITHUB_TOKEN in your environment doesn’t by itself enable background authentication. Tokens take effect only through a configured credential helper, for example the gh CLI’s helper, which reads GH_TOKEN and GITHUB_TOKEN.

To make the background pull itself authenticate over HTTPS, configure a global git URL rewrite. The rewrite embeds a token in the remote URL, so it takes effect even though the background pull disables credential helpers, and a successful pull skips the re-clone fallback. The following example rewrites the marketplace repository’s URL to include an access token:

git config --global url."https://x-access-token:[e-mail]/acme-corp/plugins".insteadOf "https://github.com/acme-corp/plugins"

Scope the rewrite to the marketplace repository or organization path. A rewrite whose base is only the host applies to every fetch and push to that host on the machine and overrides your normal credentials, including pushes to your own repositories.

Each provider expects a different username in the rewritten URL, and the same path scoping applies to every provider. For self-hosted servers, replace the hostname with your server’s hostname:

Provider	Rewritten URL form
GitHub	https://x-access-token:[e-mail]/acme-corp/plugins
GitLab	https://oauth2:[e-mail]/acme-corp/plugins
Bitbucket	https://x-token-auth:[e-mail]/acme-corp/plugins

The rewrite stores the token in plaintext in your gitconfig, so use a token with read-only access to the marketplace repository.

In CI/CD environments, configure a git credential helper before installing plugins from private repositories. On GitHub Actions, export a token with read access to the marketplace repository as GH_TOKEN, then run gh auth setup-git. The default workflow token can only access the workflow’s own repository, so a private marketplace in another repository needs a personal access token or app token. A global URL rewrite configured in the pipeline also authenticates the background pull directly.

Require marketplaces for your team

You can configure your repository so Claude Code adds your marketplace for team members once they trust the project folder, with no separate prompt. 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 uses the first seed that contains a given marketplace or plugin cache.

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. To also reject the CLI flags that sideload plugins, agents, and MCP servers for a single run, pair it with disableSideloadFlags. To allowlist which marketplaces’ plugins can appear as contextual install suggestions, set pluginSuggestionMarketplaces.

strictKnownMarketplaces matches the marketplace a plugin comes from, not the entries inside it, so users can still install a plugin with a command source from an allowed marketplace. To block command sources as well, set disableCommandPluginSources.

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. Blocks every marketplace source, including the official Anthropic marketplace
List of sources	Allowlist enforced. Users can add only marketplaces that match an entry

Common configurations

Disable all marketplace additions, including the official Anthropic marketplace:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": []
}

Allow only the official Anthropic marketplace. Matching for a single-repository entry is exact, so this entry doesn’t cover ref or path variants of the same repository:

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    {
      "source": "github",
      "repo": "anthropics/claude-plugins-official"
    }
  ]
}

With this entry, Claude Code keeps an already-registered official marketplace available and, on a fresh machine, registers the marketplace automatically the first time you start Claude Code interactively.

Automatic registration doesn’t cover every machine. It most commonly misses:

• Non-interactive environments that run before the machine’s first interactive launch.
• Machines where Claude Code already ran interactively under a policy that blocked the marketplace, such as the empty-array lockdown. Claude Code records the blocked attempt and doesn’t retry after the policy changes.

On these machines, add the marketplace to extraKnownMarketplaces in the same managed-settings.json so Claude Code registers it automatically, or run claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official.

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 every marketplace repository under a GitHub organization with an owner-wildcard entry. Owner wildcards require Claude Code v2.1.223 or later.

{
  "strictKnownMarketplaces": [
    {
      "source": "github",
      "repo": "acme-corp/*"
    }
  ]
}

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 doesn’t register marketplaces on its own. To register an allowed marketplace for users automatically, add it to extraKnownMarketplaces in the same managed-settings.json.

The official Anthropic marketplace is the only one Claude Code registers on its own, and only when the allowlist allows it. Automatic registration also misses some machines, such as non-interactive environments and machines where an earlier policy blocked it. To cover those machines, add the official marketplace to extraKnownMarketplaces as well. For the two settings side by side, see the strictKnownMarketplaces reference.

How restrictions work

Restrictions are checked before any network or filesystem operation. The check runs on marketplace add and on plugin install, update, refresh, and auto-update. If a marketplace was added before the policy was configured and its source no longer matches the allowlist, Claude Code refuses to install or update plugins from it. The same enforcement applies to blockedMarketplaces.

To block every marketplace repository under a GitHub owner, use the owner-wildcard form in a blockedMarketplaces entry: { "source": "github", "repo": "untrusted-org/*" }. Requires Claude Code v2.1.223 or later. For the matching rules, which differ between the blocklist and the allowlist, see Owner wildcards.

When a user adds an https:// repository URL that Claude Code clones rather than fetches, such as a bare github.com or gitlab.com repository URL, Claude Code also checks it against the url entries in blockedMarketplaces. Claude Code blocks the addition if an entry names the same URL. In that comparison, Claude Code ignores the .git suffix and any ref the user appends after #. Requires Claude Code v2.1.232 or later. Before v2.1.232, Claude Code matched a url entry only against a URL it fetched as a hosted marketplace.json file.

The allowlist uses exact matching for most source types, apart from owner-wildcard github entries. For a marketplace to be allowed, all specified fields must match:

• For GitHub sources: repo is required, either naming one repository or using the owner-wildcard form owner/* to cover every repository under that owner. For how wildcard entries match, including the case rules, see Owner wildcards. For single-repository entries, ref must match exactly or be absent from both the marketplace source and the allowlist entry, and the same rule applies to path
• 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

The allowlist’s exact matching doesn’t normalize URLs: a trailing slash, .git suffix, or ssh:// versus https:// form are treated as different values. If your organization’s marketplace can be cloned by more than one URL form, prefer a hostPattern entry over a literal URL so all forms match.

Because strictKnownMarketplaces is set in managed settings, individual users and project configurations can’t 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: if the resolved version matches what a user already has, /plugin update and auto-update skip the plugin. For git-based sources, if you omit version, Claude Code uses the source’s resolved commit SHA, so users get an update whenever that commit changes; this is the simplest setup for internal or actively developed plugins. See Version management for the full resolution order, including archive sources.

Setting version pins the plugin for every source type except command, whose version always includes a hash of what the command produced. If you declare "version": "1.0.0" in plugin.json and push new commits without changing that string, existing users of those sources keep the cached copy, because Claude Code sees the same version. Bump the field on every release, or omit it to fall back to the resolved version.

Avoid setting version in both plugin.json and the marketplace entry. Claude Code always uses the plugin.json value without warning, so a stale manifest version can mask a version you set in marketplace.json.

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.

Each channel must resolve to a different version. If you use explicit versions, plugin.json must declare a different version at each pinned ref. If you omit version, the distinct commit SHAs already distinguish the channels. If two refs resolve to the same version string, 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"
      }
    }
  }
}

Pin dependency versions

A plugin can constrain its dependencies to a semver range so that updates to a dependency don’t break the dependent plugin. See Constrain plugin dependency versions for the {plugin-name}--v{version} git-tag convention, range syntax, and how multiple constraints on the same dependency are combined.

Rename or remove a plugin

A plugin’s name is its stable identifier. Users reference it in enabledPlugins, pluginConfigs, and /plugin install commands, so changing it breaks every existing install. To change the label shown in the UI without breaking installs, set displayName and keep name unchanged.

If you must change a plugin’s name, or you remove a plugin from the plugins array, add a top-level renames entry so existing users migrate instead of seeing a plugin-not-found error. Automatic migration requires Claude Code v2.1.193 or later. Map each former name to its current name, or to null if the plugin no longer exists. The following example renames formatter to code-formatter and records that legacy-linter was removed:

{
  "name": "acme-tools",
  "owner": { "name": "Acme" },
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "code-formatter", "source": "./plugins/code-formatter" }
  ],
  "renames": {
    "formatter": "code-formatter",
    "legacy-linter": null
  }
}

When a user starts Claude Code with the old name still in their settings, Claude Code follows the renames map:

• If the entry points to a new name, Claude Code loads the plugin under its new name and shows a one-line notice such as Renamed to "code-formatter" in the "acme-tools" marketplace. It then rewrites the old key to the new key in the user, project, and local settings scopes for both enabledPlugins and pluginConfigs, so the notice appears once.
• For a null entry, Claude Code drops the old key and the notice reports that the plugin was removed from the marketplace.
• If the renamed plugin uses a remote source such as github or npm, Claude Code reports plugin-cache-miss after the rename and the user must run /plugin install once to fetch it under the new name.

Treat renames as append-only history: keep old entries in place even after you expect every user to have migrated. Claude Code follows chains, so if you later rename code-formatter to formatter-pro, add a second entry rather than editing the first. A user who still has the original formatter enabled then resolves through both entries to formatter-pro.

Run claude plugin validate . after editing the map; it rejects any entry whose chain forms a cycle or doesn’t terminate at null or a name listed in plugins.

Managed and policy settings are read-only to Claude Code, so plugins enabled there can’t be rewritten automatically. The renamed plugin still loads each session, but the rename notice recurs until an administrator updates enabledPlugins in the managed settings file to use the new name. The same applies to plugins enabled through other read-only sources such as --add-dir.

Earlier versions of Claude Code ignore the renames field and report plugin-not-found for the old name.

Validation and testing

Test your marketplace before sharing.

From your marketplace directory, validate the 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

A URL must include its scheme. As of Claude Code v2.1.196, a host typed without one, such as gitlab.example.com/team/plugins, is rejected as an invalid owner/repo shorthand and the error tells you to add https:// or use ./ for a local path. Earlier versions misread it as a GitHub repository path and fail at clone time with a GitHub not-found error.

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

With --json, each entry includes name, source, an installLocation field with the local cache path where the marketplace is stored, and source-specific fields: repo for GitHub sources, url for git and URL sources, and path for local sources. GitHub and git sources also include a ref field when the marketplace was added with a pinned branch or tag.

Plugin marketplace remove

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

claude plugin marketplace remove <name> [options]

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

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--scope <scope>	Restrict removal to a single settings scope: user, project, or local. See Plugin installation scopes. When omitted, the declaration is removed from every editable scope. When given, only that scope’s declaration is removed; the shared state, cache, and installed plugin data are preserved when the marketplace is still declared in another scope	(all scopes)

Removing a marketplace from its last remaining scope 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. A marketplace added with a branch or tag ref updates to the latest commit of that ref, not the repository’s default branch.

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 using claude plugin validate . or /plugin validate . from the marketplace directory. To check skill, agent, and command frontmatter, see Validate a plugin or a directory without a manifest
• 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. When pointed at a marketplace directory, the validator checks marketplace.json for schema errors, duplicate plugin names, and source path traversal. For each entry whose source is a local path, it also validates that plugin’s own plugin.json and warns when the entry’s version doesn’t match the one in plugin.json. Problems found in a plugin’s plugin.json are prefixed with the entry index, in the form plugins[2] plugin.json →.

As of Claude Code v2.1.196, the per-entry pass also:

• includes plugins whose source is .
• runs when marketplace.json is outside a .claude-plugin directory, resolving sources against the file’s own directory
• reports each entry’s problems even when another part of the file has schema errors

Earlier versions skip plugins at the marketplace root and only descend from a .claude-plugin/marketplace.json.

From a marketplace directory, Claude Code doesn’t open the plugins’ skill, agent, command, or hook files. To find errors in those files, see Validate a plugin or a directory without a manifest. The table below lists the most common errors from a marketplace directory, with the cause and fix for each:

Error	Cause	Solution
No manifest found in directory. Expected .claude-plugin/marketplace.json or .claude-plugin/plugin.json	The directory you named has no .claude-plugin/marketplace.json or plugin.json, and no skill, agent, or command files to check	Run from the marketplace root, or create .claude-plugin/marketplace.json with the 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

Warnings (non-blocking):

• Marketplace has no plugins defined: add at least one plugin to the plugins array
• No marketplace description provided: add a top-level 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.
• Marketplace name "x" is reserved in Claude Desktop: the marketplace is named org, org-provisioned, or unknown, in any casing. Claude Code accepts these names, but Claude Desktop’s managed marketplace sync rejects the whole marketplace. Rename the marketplace. Before v2.1.221, claude plugin validate didn’t run this check.
• Marketplace name "x" is not accepted by Claude Desktop or Plugin name "x" is not accepted by Claude Desktop: Claude Desktop accepts names of up to 128 characters made of letters, digits, ., _, and -, starting with a letter or digit. Claude Code accepts other forms, but Claude Desktop’s managed marketplace sync rejects a marketplace whose name fails the check and silently drops a plugin entry whose name does. Rename the marketplace or plugin. Before v2.1.221, claude plugin validate didn’t run these checks.

Validate a plugin or a directory without a manifest

To find skill, agent, and command files whose frontmatter doesn’t parse, run claude plugin validate and name the directory that holds them. Claude Code doesn’t look outside the directory you name. Every run except one against a plugin that has a plugin.json requires Claude Code v2.1.233 or later.

Pick the directory to name

Claude Code checks different files depending on which directory you name. Find what you want to check in the first column, and run that row’s command:

To check	Run	Claude Code checks
A plugin that has a plugin.json	claude plugin validate ./plugins/my-plugin	plugin.json, hooks/hooks.json, and the skills, agents, and commands directories at the plugin root
One directory of skills, agents, or commands, such as a plugin that has no plugin.json yet	claude plugin validate .claude/skills, ~/.claude/agents, or ./my-plugin/agents	Every skill, agent, or command file in that directory
A folder whose skill is its root SKILL.md	claude plugin validate ./skills, naming the skills directory that holds the folder	Each folder’s root SKILL.md. The holding directory must be named skills; a folder under another name, such as plugins/, has no run that checks its root SKILL.md
A project’s three directories at once	claude plugin validate .claude, or the project root when it has no .claude-plugin/ manifest	.claude/skills, .claude/agents, and .claude/commands
Your user-level directories	claude plugin validate ~/.claude	~/.claude/skills, ~/.claude/agents, and ~/.claude/commands

Check a plugin whose skill is its root SKILL.md

When you run claude plugin validate against a plugin directory, Claude Code doesn’t check a SKILL.md at the plugin root. When the plugin sits in a directory named skills, run the command twice:

• Name that skills directory to check the plugin’s root SKILL.md.
• Name the plugin directory to check the rest.

When the plugin sits under another name, such as plugins/, the skills-directory run isn’t available, and no run checks its root SKILL.md.

Check files behind symlinks

When you run claude plugin validate, Claude Code doesn’t follow symlinks inside the directory you name. What it does depends on where the link is:

• A linked skills, agents, or commands directory under the plugin or .claude root: Claude Code warns that nothing in it was read.
• A linked entry inside a skills, agents, or commands directory: Claude Code skips it and warns, per directory, how many entries it skipped that a session would load.
• The skills, agents, or commands directory you name is itself a symlink, or its parent .claude directory is: Claude Code reports an error and checks nothing in it. Name the real directory instead.

In two skills cases, the run passes with warnings. To check the linked files, run again and name a directory that holds them directly:

• A plugin whose skills directory links to a sibling plugin’s skills: name the sibling plugin’s directory.
• A symlinked skill entry in ~/.claude/skills or .claude/skills: Claude Code follows the entry in a session. To check it, name a directory called skills that holds the real folder.

Read the validation results

A clean run ends with Validation passed.

No manifest found in directory means Claude Code found no plugin.json or marketplace.json there, and no skill, agent, or command file in the directories it probes under it. Name the skills, agents, or commands directory that holds your files instead.

Two of the errors Claude Code reports from these runs, with the fix for each:

• YAML frontmatter failed to parse: ...: fix the YAML in the frontmatter block of the skill, agent, or command file. Until you do, a session reads no frontmatter fields from the file
• Invalid JSON syntax: ... on hooks/hooks.json: fix the JSON syntax. Until you do, a session loads the plugin without the hooks in that file. Claude Code reports this error only in a plugin run

In a plugin run, Claude Code also warns about a CLAUDE.md at the plugin root. For paths you set through the component path fields in plugin.json, Claude Code checks that each path exists but doesn’t read the files there.

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
• If the source pins both ref and sha, a deleted upstream branch or tag doesn’t block installation on most git hosts, including GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket. On servers that don’t support fetching commits by SHA, such as AWS CodeCommit, the ref must still exist and the pinned commit must be reachable from it. If the install still fails, confirm the pinned commit still exists in the repository

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: git config --global credential.helper
• Run git ls-remote <marketplace-url> to test whether git can authenticate on its own. If git asks for a username or password, store the credential first: for GitHub over HTTPS, run gh auth setup-git, and for SSH remotes, load your key into ssh-agent

For background auto-updates:

• By default, background refreshes disable git credential helpers for the pull, so the pull can’t authenticate over HTTPS. SSH remotes with a key loaded in ssh-agent still authenticate. A failed pull triggers a re-clone from scratch, which uses your stored credentials but may time out on large repositories
• Set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1 to keep the existing clone when the background pull fails
• Configure a git credential helper, for example gh auth setup-git, so the re-clone fallback can authenticate
• If the re-clone times out on a large repository, increase the limit with CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_GIT_TIMEOUT_MS
• Configure a git URL rewrite scoped to the marketplace repository so the background pull authenticates directly
• Or update private marketplaces manually with /plugin marketplace update <name>, which uses your credentials

Marketplace updates fail in offline environments

Symptoms: Marketplace git pull fails in the background and Claude Code repeatedly attempts a re-clone that can’t succeed.

Cause: By default, when a git pull fails, Claude Code attempts a re-clone from scratch. In offline or airgapped environments, re-cloning fails the same way, and the restore of the previous cache afterward is best-effort. The refresh runs in the background after startup, so it doesn’t delay startup, but each session repeats the failed attempts and each git operation can wait out the 120-second timeout.

Solution: Set CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1 to skip the re-clone attempt and keep using the existing cache when the pull fails:

export CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_KEEP_MARKETPLACE_ON_FAILURE=1

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 don’t 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 any plugin source other than a relative path:
  { "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, except for a command source in link mode. Paths that reference files outside a copied 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.

See also

• Discover and install prebuilt plugins - Installing plugins from existing marketplaces
• Plugins - Creating your own plugins
• Plugins reference - Complete technical specifications and schemas
• Plugin settings - Plugin configuration options
• strictKnownMarketplaces reference - Managed marketplace restrictions