Plugins

Extend Claude Code with plugins that provide additional skills, MCP servers, and hooks — installed from a marketplace or from a local path.

Plugins extend Claude Code’s capabilities by packaging skills, MCP server configurations, and hooks into a single installable unit. Plugins can be installed per-user or per-project and are managed via the /plugin slash command.

Built-in plugins vs. third-party plugins

Built-in plugins ship with Claude Code. They appear in the /plugin UI under a “Built-in” section and can be toggled on or off. Built-in plugins are disabled by default until they become generally available.

Third-party plugins are distributed through plugin marketplaces (public or private registries). They are installed by name or URL and appear in the same /plugin UI alongside built-in plugins.

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Plugin scopes

Plugins are installed at one of two scopes:

Scope	Description	Config location
user	Available in all projects on your machine	~/.claude/settings.json
project	Available only in the current project directory	<project>/.claude/settings.json

The scope is selected during installation. User-scoped plugins load before project-scoped ones, and project plugins can override user settings.

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Plugin lifecycle

When Claude Code starts, plugins go through the following stages:

1. Discover — Claude Code reads the enabled plugin list from user and project settings.
2. Load — Each plugin’s manifest (plugin.json or package.json) is read to determine what it provides.
3. Init — MCP servers declared by the plugin are registered alongside manually configured servers. Skills declared by the plugin are loaded. Hooks declared by the plugin are registered.
4. Deduplication — If a plugin’s MCP server matches an already-configured server (same command array or URL), the plugin server is suppressed. Manually configured servers always win.

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What plugins can provide

A plugin can include any combination of:

• Skills — slash commands and background-invocable workflows (see Skills)
• MCP servers — pre-configured MCP server definitions loaded automatically (see MCP servers)
• Hooks — shell commands or HTTP calls that fire before/after tool executions (see Hooks)

Plugin-provided MCP servers are namespaced as plugin:<plugin-name>:<server-name> to avoid collisions with manually configured servers.

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The /plugin slash command

Run /plugin inside a session to open the plugin management UI. Available subcommands:

Subcommand	Description
/plugin	Open the plugin management menu
/plugin install <name>	Install a plugin from the default marketplace
/plugin install <name>@<marketplace>	Install from a specific marketplace
/plugin install <url-or-path>	Install from a URL or local path
/plugin uninstall <name>	Remove an installed plugin
/plugin enable <name>	Enable a disabled plugin
/plugin disable <name>	Disable without uninstalling
/plugin manage	Open the full plugin list UI
/plugin marketplace	Manage marketplace registries
/plugin validate <path>	Validate a plugin directory before installing

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Installing a plugin

1. Find the plugin

   Browse available plugins in the marketplace UI with /plugin install, or ask Claude:

   /plugin install
   

   This opens the marketplace browser where you can search and filter plugins.

2. Install the plugin

   Install a specific plugin by name:

   /plugin install my-plugin
   

   Or install from a URL:

   /plugin install https://plugins.example.com/my-plugin
   

   Or install from a local directory (useful when developing a plugin):

   /plugin install ./path/to/my-plugin
   
3. Choose the scope

   When prompted, choose between user (all projects) or project (current project only).

4. Restart or reload

   Most plugins take effect in the next Claude Code session. Some MCP server changes may require restarting the session.

   /plugin manage
   

   Use the manage view to confirm the plugin is listed as enabled.

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Plugin configuration

Many plugins expose configuration options. You can view and change plugin settings from the /plugin management UI by selecting a plugin and choosing Settings.

Plugin configuration is stored per-scope alongside the plugin’s enabled state in settings.json.

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Enterprise plugin policies

Administrators can restrict plugin customizations using strictPluginOnlyCustomization in managed settings. This forces skills, agents, hooks, and/or MCP servers to come exclusively from plugins rather than from user-defined files:

{
  "strictPluginOnlyCustomization": ["skills", "hooks", "mcp"]
}

When a surface is locked, the corresponding user-defined configuration (.claude/skills/, hooks in settings.json, etc.) is ignored. Only plugin-provided content is active.

When strictPluginOnlyCustomization is set, users can still install plugins — but they cannot add individual skills or MCP servers outside of a plugin.

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Related pages

Skills

Learn about skills that plugins can provide.

MCP servers

Understand MCP server configuration that plugins manage.

Hooks

Learn about hooks that plugins can register.

Configuration

Configure enterprise plugin policies.