obsidian/raw/_processed/Create plugins.md

title	source	author	published	created	description	tags
Create plugins	https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins			2026-04-17	Create custom plugins to extend Claude Code with skills, agents, hooks, and MCP servers.	clippings

Plugins let you extend Claude Code with custom functionality that can be shared across projects and teams. This guide covers creating your own plugins with skills, agents, hooks, and MCP servers.

Looking to install existing plugins? See Discover and install plugins. For complete technical specifications, see Plugins reference.

When to use plugins vs standalone configuration

Claude Code supports two ways to add custom skills, agents, and hooks:

Approach	Skill names	Best for
Standalone (.claude/ directory)	/hello	Personal workflows, project-specific customizations, quick experiments
Plugins (directories with .claude-plugin/plugin.json)	/plugin-name:hello	Sharing with teammates, distributing to community, versioned releases, reusable across projects

Use standalone configuration when:

• You’re customizing Claude Code for a single project
• The configuration is personal and doesn’t need to be shared
• You’re experimenting with skills or hooks before packaging them
• You want short skill names like /hello or /deploy

Use plugins when:

• You want to share functionality with your team or community
• You need the same skills/agents across multiple projects
• You want version control and easy updates for your extensions
• You’re distributing through a marketplace
• You’re okay with namespaced skills like /my-plugin:hello (namespacing prevents conflicts between plugins)

Start with standalone configuration in .claude/ for quick iteration, then convert to a plugin when you’re ready to share.

Quickstart

This quickstart walks you through creating a plugin with a custom skill. You’ll create a manifest (the configuration file that defines your plugin), add a skill, and test it locally using the --plugin-dir flag.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code installed and authenticated

If you don’t see the /plugin command, update Claude Code to the latest version. See Troubleshooting for upgrade instructions.

Create your first plugin

You’ve successfully created and tested a plugin with these key components:

• Plugin manifest (.claude-plugin/plugin.json): describes your plugin’s metadata
• Skills directory (skills/): contains your custom skills
• Skill arguments ($ARGUMENTS): captures user input for dynamic behavior

The --plugin-dir flag is useful for development and testing. When you’re ready to share your plugin with others, see Create and distribute a plugin marketplace.

Plugin structure overview

You’ve created a plugin with a skill, but plugins can include much more: custom agents, hooks, MCP servers, LSP servers, and background monitors.

Common mistake: Don’t put commands/, agents/, skills/, or hooks/ inside the .claude-plugin/ directory. Only plugin.json goes inside .claude-plugin/. All other directories must be at the plugin root level.

Directory	Location	Purpose
.claude-plugin/	Plugin root	Contains plugin.json manifest (optional if components use default locations)
skills/	Plugin root	Skills as <name>/SKILL.md directories
commands/	Plugin root	Skills as flat Markdown files. Use skills/ for new plugins
agents/	Plugin root	Custom agent definitions
hooks/	Plugin root	Event handlers in hooks.json
.mcp.json	Plugin root	MCP server configurations
.lsp.json	Plugin root	LSP server configurations for code intelligence
monitors/	Plugin root	Background monitor configurations in monitors.json
bin/	Plugin root	Executables added to the Bash tool’s PATH while the plugin is enabled
settings.json	Plugin root	Default settings applied when the plugin is enabled

Next steps: Ready to add more features? Jump to Develop more complex plugins to add agents, hooks, MCP servers, and LSP servers. For complete technical specifications of all plugin components, see Plugins reference.

Develop more complex plugins

Once you’re comfortable with basic plugins, you can create more sophisticated extensions.

Add Skills to your plugin

Plugins can include Agent Skills to extend Claude’s capabilities. Skills are model-invoked: Claude automatically uses them based on the task context.

Add a skills/ directory at your plugin root with Skill folders containing SKILL.md files:

my-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json
└── skills/
    └── code-review/
        └── SKILL.md

Each SKILL.md contains YAML frontmatter and instructions. Include a description so Claude knows when to use the skill:

---
description: Reviews code for best practices and potential issues. Use when reviewing code, checking PRs, or analyzing code quality.
---

When reviewing code, check for:
1. Code organization and structure
2. Error handling
3. Security concerns
4. Test coverage

After installing the plugin, run /reload-plugins to load the Skills. For complete Skill authoring guidance including progressive disclosure and tool restrictions, see Agent Skills.

Add LSP servers to your plugin

For common languages like TypeScript, Python, and Rust, install the pre-built LSP plugins from the official marketplace. Create custom LSP plugins only when you need support for languages not already covered.

LSP (Language Server Protocol) plugins give Claude real-time code intelligence. If you need to support a language that doesn’t have an official LSP plugin, you can create your own by adding an .lsp.json file to your plugin:

{
  "go": {
    "command": "gopls",
    "args": ["serve"],
    "extensionToLanguage": {
      ".go": "go"
    }
  }
}

Users installing your plugin must have the language server binary installed on their machine.

For complete LSP configuration options, see LSP servers.

Add background monitors to your plugin

Background monitors let your plugin watch logs, files, or external status in the background and notify Claude as events arrive. Claude Code starts each monitor automatically when the plugin is active, so you don’t need to instruct Claude to start the watch.

Add a monitors/monitors.json file at the plugin root with an array of monitor entries:

[
  {
    "name": "error-log",
    "command": "tail -F ./logs/error.log",
    "description": "Application error log"
  }
]

Each stdout line from command is delivered to Claude as a notification during the session. For the full schema, including the when trigger and variable substitution, see Monitors.

Ship default settings with your plugin

Plugins can include a settings.json file at the plugin root to apply default configuration when the plugin is enabled. Currently, only the agent and subagentStatusLine keys are supported.

Setting agent activates one of the plugin’s custom agents as the main thread, applying its system prompt, tool restrictions, and model. This lets a plugin change how Claude Code behaves by default when enabled.

{
  "agent": "security-reviewer"
}

This example activates the security-reviewer agent defined in the plugin’s agents/ directory. Settings from settings.json take priority over settings declared in plugin.json. Unknown keys are silently ignored.

Organize complex plugins

For plugins with many components, organize your directory structure by functionality. For complete directory layouts and organization patterns, see Plugin directory structure.

Test your plugins locally

Use the --plugin-dir flag to test plugins during development. This loads your plugin directly without requiring installation.

claude --plugin-dir ./my-plugin

When a --plugin-dir plugin has the same name as an installed marketplace plugin, the local copy takes precedence for that session. This lets you test changes to a plugin you already have installed without uninstalling it first. Marketplace plugins force-enabled by managed settings are the only exception and cannot be overridden.

As you make changes to your plugin, run /reload-plugins to pick up the updates without restarting. This reloads plugins, skills, agents, hooks, plugin MCP servers, and plugin LSP servers. Test your plugin components:

• Try your skills with /plugin-name:skill-name
• Check that agents appear in /agents
• Verify hooks work as expected

You can load multiple plugins at once by specifying the flag multiple times:

claude --plugin-dir ./plugin-one --plugin-dir ./plugin-two

Debug plugin issues

If your plugin isn’t working as expected:

1. Check the structure: Ensure your directories are at the plugin root, not inside .claude-plugin/
2. Test components individually: Check each skill, agent, and hook separately
3. Use validation and debugging tools: See Debugging and development tools for CLI commands and troubleshooting techniques

Share your plugins

When your plugin is ready to share:

1. Add documentation: Include a README.md with installation and usage instructions
2. Version your plugin: Use semantic versioning in your plugin.json
3. Create or use a marketplace: Distribute through plugin marketplaces for installation
4. Test with others: Have team members test the plugin before wider distribution

Once your plugin is in a marketplace, others can install it using the instructions in Discover and install plugins.

Submit your plugin to the official marketplace

To submit a plugin to the official Anthropic marketplace, use one of the in-app submission forms:

• Claude.ai: claude.ai/settings/plugins/submit
• Console: platform.claude.com/plugins/submit

Once your plugin is listed, you can have your own CLI prompt Claude Code users to install it. See Recommend your plugin from your CLI.

For complete technical specifications, debugging techniques, and distribution strategies, see Plugins reference.

Convert existing configurations to plugins

If you already have skills or hooks in your .claude/ directory, you can convert them into a plugin for easier sharing and distribution.

Migration steps

What changes when migrating

Standalone (.claude/)	Plugin
Only available in one project	Can be shared via marketplaces
Files in .claude/commands/	Files in plugin-name/commands/
Hooks in settings.json	Hooks in hooks/hooks.json
Must manually copy to share	Install with /plugin install

After migrating, you can remove the original files from .claude/ to avoid duplicates. The plugin version will take precedence when loaded.

Next steps

Now that you understand Claude Code’s plugin system, here are suggested paths for different goals:

For plugin users

• Discover and install plugins: browse marketplaces and install plugins
• Configure team marketplaces: set up repository-level plugins for your team

For plugin developers

• Create and distribute a marketplace: package and share your plugins
• Plugins reference: complete technical specifications
• Dive deeper into specific plugin components: