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title Create and distribute a plugin marketplace
source https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugin-marketplaces
category code
generated true

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://code.claude.com/docs/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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 (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:

  1. Creating 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. Creating a 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.

```bash theme={null} 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 a `SKILL.md` file that defines what the `quality-review` skill does. 
```markdown my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/skills/quality-review/SKILL.md theme={null}
---
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 a `plugin.json` file that describes the plugin. The manifest goes in the `.claude-plugin/` directory. 
```json my-marketplace/plugins/quality-review-plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json theme={null}
{
  "name": "quality-review-plugin",
  "description": "Adds a quality-review skill for quick code reviews",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}
```

<Note>
  Setting `version` means users only receive updates when you change this field, so bump it on every release. If you omit `version` and host this marketplace in git, every commit automatically counts as a new version. See [Version resolution](#version-resolution-and-release-channels) to choose the right approach.
</Note>
Create the marketplace catalog that lists your plugin. 
```json my-marketplace/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json theme={null}
{
  "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 the marketplace and install the plugin. 
```shell theme={null}
/plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace
/plugin install quality-review-plugin@my-plugins
```
Select some code in your editor and run your new skill. Plugin skills are namespaced with the plugin name. 
```shell theme={null}
/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. 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. 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`, `anthropic-agent-skills`, `knowledge-work-plugins`, `life-sciences`, `claude-for-legal`, `claude-for-financial-services`, `financial-services-plugins`. Names that impersonate official marketplaces, such as `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 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 Base directory prepended to relative plugin source paths (for example, "./plugins" lets you write "source": "formatter" instead of "source": "./plugins/formatter")
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.

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 (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
displayName string {/* min-version: 2.1.143 */}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. Requires Claude Code v2.1.143 or later.
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. Omit to fall back to the git commit SHA. See Version resolution.
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
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 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](#plugins-with-relative-paths-fail-in-url-based-marketplaces) 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 (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 provides the easiest distribution method:

  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. For manual installation and updates, 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.

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`](./code-settings.md#extraknownmarketplaces) in the same `managed-settings.json`. See [Using both together](./code-settings.md#strictknownmarketplaces).

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.

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

Exact matching does not 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 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: if the resolved version matches what a user already has, /plugin update and auto-update skip the plugin.

Claude Code resolves a plugin's version from the first of these that is set:

  1. version in the plugin's plugin.json
  2. version in the plugin's marketplace entry
  3. The git commit SHA of the plugin's source

For the git-based source types github, url, git-subdir, and relative paths inside a git-hosted marketplace, you can omit version entirely and every new commit is treated as a new version. This is the simplest setup for internal or actively-developed plugins.

Setting `version` pins the plugin. If `plugin.json` declares `"version": "1.0.0"`, pushing new commits without changing that string does nothing for existing users, because Claude Code sees the same version and keeps the cached copy. Bump the field on every release, or omit it to use the commit SHA.

Avoid setting version in both plugin.json and the marketplace entry. The plugin.json value always wins silently, 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 do not 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.

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 using claude plugin validate or /plugin validate. To check skill, agent, and command frontmatter, run the command against each plugin directory
  • 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 only: schema, duplicate plugin names, source path traversal, and version mismatches against each referenced plugin.json.

To validate an individual plugin's plugin.json and its skill, agent, command, and hook files, run the command against the plugin directory itself, for example claude plugin validate ./plugins/my-plugin. 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. Reported only when validating a plugin directory
Invalid JSON syntax: ... (hooks.json) Malformed hooks/hooks.json Fix JSON syntax. A malformed hooks/hooks.json prevents the entire plugin from loading. Reported only when validating a plugin directory

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.

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.

See also