PlainSkillsZero0

Install and manage Claude Code plugins

A plugin is a package that adds skills, agents, hooks and MCP servers to Claude Code in one step. It comes from a marketplace, which is a catalog of plugins. This page covers installing one, choosing who gets it, keeping it updated, and removing it, with the checks worth making first.

Install a plugin

Anthropic's official marketplace (claude-plugins-official) is added for you the first time you open an interactive Claude Code session. As an example, this installs commit-commands, which adds commands for committing, pushing and opening pull requests:

/plugin install commit-commands@claude-plugins-official

In a session this does not install immediately. It opens the /plugin panel on that plugin's details so you can review it and choose a scope first. To browse instead, run /plugin with no name: the Discover tab lists the plugins from your marketplaces, and you can type to search.

The details pane can show Will install (the commands, agents, skills, hooks and servers it adds) and, for plugins in the official marketplace, a Context cost with two token estimates: what the plugin adds to every message, and what its skills and agents add once loaded. Those estimates appear when you open the plugin by naming its marketplace, as above, but not from the Discover list. Read the pane before you install. A plugin can run hooks and MCP servers, so treat it like any code you let run on your machine; the docs have a separate page on plugin security and trust.

Choose a scope

See which settings file wins if the same plugin is set in more than one place.

Check that it worked

The last line of the install summary says whether the plugin is usable yet: active now, active but a bundled server needs setup (use Configure on the Installed tab), reload needed (Claude Code normally runs /reload-plugins for you), or couldn't be loaded (open the Errors tab in /plugin). Then type / and look for the plugin's skills in the form /<plugin>:<skill>, such as /commit-commands:commit. claude plugin list in your shell shows version, scope and status.

From your shell

claude plugin install formatter@your-org --scope project

This installs without starting a session, for example from a setup script. The default scope is user. Plugins load the next time you start Claude Code, or when you run /reload-plugins in an open session. Some plugins install by running a command their marketplace names; Claude Code shows it and asks you to accept it, and a script passes --yes to accept.

Add a marketplace

You only need this for plugins that are not in the official marketplace, such as one a coworker published. Claude Code has to know about a marketplace before you can install from it:

/plugin marketplace add owner/repo
/plugin marketplace add owner/repo#v1.2.0
/plugin marketplace add https://example.com/marketplace.json
/plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace

The source can be a GitHub repository (add #ref to pin a branch or tag), a git URL, a local directory or file (start a relative path with ./, because a bare name/name is read as a GitHub repository), or a hosted marketplace.json. Include https:// on every URL. From the shell, claude plugin marketplace add takes the same sources. A marketplace is code you are choosing to trust, so add only ones you know.

Manage what is installed

Watch what it costs you

Plugins add to your context. claude plugin details <name> shows the tokens a plugin adds to every session where it is enabled and which component contributes most. On the Installed tab, plugins you have not used recently appear under a Not used recently header, which is a good place to disable or remove what you no longer need. See using less quota and the context window.

Updates

Plugins update automatically when their marketplace has auto-update turned on. According to the docs it is on by default for Anthropic's official marketplaces and for ones added from claude.ai, and off for every other marketplace, including the community marketplace, third-party ones and local ones. A running session keeps the versions it already loaded; you see a message and run /reload-plugins to apply, or the next session loads the new versions. To update one plugin now, choose Update now or run claude plugin update <plugin>@<marketplace>. There is no command that updates every plugin at once, but on the Marketplaces tab you can choose Update marketplace to update the plugins you installed from one marketplace.

Good to know

To understand the parts a plugin bundles, see skills, hooks, MCP servers and subagents, and best practices for when to use which. All the guides are in the guides index.

This follows Anthropic's plugins documentation as we read it in October 2026. We are not affiliated with Anthropic. We wrote this from the documentation and have not tested every case. Commands, marketplaces and defaults change between versions (some install forms need a recent version), and where this page and the documentation disagree, the documentation wins.

The free loop-stop skill gives long tasks a limit and a stop rule. If you want a second pair of eyes on your CLAUDE.md and settings, the Tune-Up Kit is a checklist for exactly that.