agent-marketplace-template

A template for a plugin marketplace that Claude Code installs from and that skills tooling (the skills CLI) can read, so every skill is written once and reaches both. It carries a working example of every Claude Code plugin component type, per-plugin releases, commit linting, CI and the docs a team needs to run it. MIT licensed.

Quick start

Use the initialiser. It asks for a name, owner and content set, writes the placeholders, validates the result and can create the repository for you:

npm create agent-marketplace
npm create claude-marketplace

The two names are the same tool. Flags go after --:

npm create agent-marketplace -- --content skills,claude

Or use the template directly: press "Use this template" on GitHub, or run gh repo create <owner>/<name> --template ExaDev/agent-marketplace-template --private --clone, then run pnpm install and pnpm run init in the clone. The initialiser calls the same init script, so both routes give the same result.

Requirements: the latest Node LTS, pnpm (the version is pinned in packageManager) and git. The Claude Code CLI is needed to run the plugin validation.

Initialiser options

• --name: the repository and package name. Asked for when omitted.
• --marketplace-name: the name of the Claude Code marketplace, written to .claude-plugin/marketplace.json and to the install commands. It defaults to --name, and differs from it when a marketplace called acme lives in a repository called agent-marketplace. It needs the claude content type.
• --contact: an email address or an http(s) URL that receives security reports and code of conduct reports. It is written to SECURITY.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md for every content set. Asked for when omitted, and an error with --yes.
• --owner, --org, --licence, --examples, --dir, --yes and --no-validate: run pnpm run init --help for each.

The initialiser also replaces this README with one written for the generated repository, from scripts/init/README.template.md, and gives the marketplace a neutral description in place of the template's. It writes the repository's own organisation and name into the documentation's install and API examples, and repository, homepage and bugs into package.json and each plugin manifest.

Content options

--content takes a comma-separated list of content types. The default is all, which is shorthand for skills,claude. Order does not matter and duplicates collapse. An unknown value or an empty list is an error that names the valid ones.

• claude: a Claude Code plugin marketplace. It keeps .claude-plugin/, plugins/, per-plugin releases and plugin validation. It drops the skills CLI docs and the check that the skills CLI lists each skill once.
• skills: a plain skills repository with skills/<name>/SKILL.md at the root, found by the skills CLI and usable by any agent. Everything plugin-shaped is dropped: no .claude-plugin/, no plugins/, no plugin versions, no per-plugin release. Commit linting, CI and the skill front matter and unique-name check stay.
• skills,claude (the same as all): the plugin marketplace plus the skills CLI docs and the listing check.

Skills live once, inside their plugin, so claude and skills,claude produce the same layout. The skills CLI finds plugin skills by reading the marketplace entries, whatever you choose, so choosing claude alone cannot hide them from it. It only means this repository does not advertise or test that route.

The template carries every file. A manifest in scripts/content.ts records which content type owns which paths, workflow jobs, README sections, scripts and dev dependencies, and init deletes what the unselected types own. Files every shape needs (commit lint, the CI skeleton, the docs shell) belong to an always-kept core.

Plugins

Plugin	Description	Install
example-agents	Minimal example of the agent component type: two subagent personas.	/plugin install example-agents@agent-marketplace-template
example-bin	Minimal example of a plugin executable on the Bash tool PATH.	/plugin install example-bin@agent-marketplace-template
example-bundle	Minimal example of a bundle: a plugin with no components that installs other plugins as dependencies.	/plugin install example-bundle@agent-marketplace-template
example-commands	Minimal example of the command component type: one flat slash command that takes arguments.	/plugin install example-commands@agent-marketplace-template
example-hooks	Minimal example of plugin hooks: a PreToolUse Bash guard and an opt-in, hash-tracked SessionStart installer.	/plugin install example-hooks@agent-marketplace-template
example-lsp	Minimal example of a plugin-provided language server configuration for TypeScript and JavaScript.	/plugin install example-lsp@agent-marketplace-template
example-mcp	Minimal example of a plugin-provided MCP server: a dependency-free stdio server with one tool.	/plugin install example-mcp@agent-marketplace-template
example-monitors	Minimal example of a plugin background monitor.	/plugin install example-monitors@agent-marketplace-template
example-output-styles	Minimal example of a plugin-provided output style.	/plugin install example-output-styles@agent-marketplace-template
example-settings	Minimal example of plugin default settings, including the agent setting.	/plugin install example-settings@agent-marketplace-template
example-skills	Minimal example of the skill component type: two skills, one with a reference file and a script, one that reads a shared file.	/plugin install example-skills@agent-marketplace-template
example-themes	Minimal example of a plugin colour theme.	/plugin install example-themes@agent-marketplace-template
example-workflows	Minimal example of a plugin dynamic workflow.	/plugin install example-workflows@agent-marketplace-template
marketplace-maintainer	Skills that add, validate and remove plugins in a plugin marketplace checkout.	/plugin install marketplace-maintainer@agent-marketplace-template
share-agent-setup	Contribute a skill, agent, hook or other piece of your Claude Code setup to your own marketplace or to someone else's, or share it directly as a setup prompt.	/plugin install share-agent-setup@agent-marketplace-template

The table between the markers is generated from .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by pnpm run readme, and pnpm run check:readme fails when it is stale. Edit the marketplace file, not the table.

Using the marketplace

/plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
/plugin install example-skills@<marketplace-name>

The marketplace name is the name in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, not the repository name; --marketplace-name sets it.

To install the skills with the skills CLI instead, run npx skills add <owner>/<repo>. docs/distribution.md covers the other ways to put a marketplace in front of a team.

Layout

.claude-plugin/marketplace.json   the catalogue, one entry per plugin
plugins/<name>/                   one pnpm workspace package per plugin
scripts/                          init, version sync, checks, README table
eslint.config.ts                  the shared ESLint config, applied to this repository itself
.github/workflows/                ci, ci-skip-guard, merge-when-green, template-selfcheck
docs/                             authoring, distribution, releasing and the rest

Each plugin is a private pnpm workspace package. Its package.json carries the version, the release tool bumps it, and a release step copies it into the plugin's .claude-plugin/plugin.json. Marketplace entries carry no version, because Claude Code ignores the entry's value when plugin.json sets one and claude plugin validate warns about the pair. The agentSkills rules of the shared ESLint config enforce this and the other structural conventions: skill names equal their directory and are unique, entries and manifests agree with the plugin directories, and plugin.json carries the version in package.json.

Commands

Command	Purpose
pnpm run validate	Everything CI runs on a pull request apart from commit linting: type-check, lint, the tests, the skills and version checks, the README table and plugin validation
pnpm run typecheck	Type-check the scripts
pnpm run lint	Lint the scripts, JSON, Markdown, every SKILL.md and the marketplace and plugin manifests with the shared ESLint config
pnpm run lint:fix	The same, applying the fixes, including the canonical layout of the JSON files
pnpm run test	Run the tests of the scripts (part of validate)
pnpm run check:skills	Every SKILL.md sits where the skills CLI finds it, one listing per tool, no plugin name Claude Code reserves
pnpm run check:versions	Each plugin's package.json carries a version and is named for its directory
pnpm run check:readme	The plugin table is up to date
pnpm run check:ci-skip	No CI skip tokens in commit messages
pnpm run lint:commits	Lint commit messages
pnpm run readme	Regenerate the plugin table
pnpm run release	Release changed plugins (CI runs this on main)
pnpm run init	Apply a content set and fill in the placeholders

Documentation

• CONTRIBUTING.md: the path from a first change to a merged pull request

• docs/authoring.md: every component type, with the example plugin to copy

• docs/distribution.md: how people and teams install from the marketplace

• docs/cross-marketplace.md: listing and depending on plugins from other repositories

• docs/skills-cli.md: installing the same skills with the skills CLI

• docs/releasing.md: versions, tags and the release job

• docs/rulesets.md: a ruleset recipe for main
• docs/private-repo-auth.md: git credentials for a private marketplace
• SECURITY.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Claude Code's own documentation is the authority for plugin behaviour: plugins, creating a marketplace and the marketplace reference.

Licence

MIT, see LICENSE. A repository generated from this template can use any licence; the initialiser asks.