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plugins/publish.md 2026-09-24 22:57 UTC to 2026-09-25 23:58 UTC

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Fri 25 23:58

Publish and distribute a plugin

Publish a Claude Code plugin through your own marketplace or Anthropic's directory, with a pre-release checklist and how users get updates.

Publishing a Claude Code plugin means listing it in a marketplace, a JSON catalog that lists plugins and where to fetch each one, so that other people can install it by name and receive your updates. You can run your own marketplace or submit your plugin to Anthropic's directory. To share a plugin without publishing it, send people the plugin's directory or a .zip of it to load themselves.

This page is for the author of a working plugin who is ready to share it.

Start with Choose how to distribute to compare the distribution options. If you already know your route, go to Prepare your plugin for release, then follow your route's section for what to tell your users and how they receive your updates.

Choose how to distribute

Choose a distribution option based on who needs to install the plugin:

Route Who can install What you need Do users get your updates automatically?
No marketplace The people you send the plugin folder or a .zip of it The plugin's folder None. They load the copy you sent
Your own marketplace Anyone who can reach the repository, which can be a private one your team can clone A git repository or other host with a .claude-plugin/marketplace.json that lists your plugin Off
Anthropic's directory People who add it on claude.ai or in Cowork. It also loads in their Claude Code sessions through account sync A GitHub repository holding the plugin and a paid claude.ai plan to submit from Yes, after the version you push is published

Auto-update is a per-marketplace setting on the user's side that fetches new versions in the background.

Prepare your plugin for release

The name, the version, validation, and an install from a marketplace decide whether a release works for the people who install it. Check them before the first release and again before each later one.

1

Choose a permanent name

Users install, enable, and configure your plugin by name@marketplace, so a renamed plugin is a different plugin to every existing install. Choose a kebab-case name such as deploy-helper, because claude plugin validate warns on other forms, and treat it as permanent. Set displayName in plugin.json for the label users see.

2

Decide how you'll version

If you set version in plugin.json and later push commits without changing it, claude plugin update prints <name> is already at the latest version (1.0.0). and users keep the old copy. Either increment version on every release, or omit it in a git-hosted marketplace so Claude Code uses the commit SHA instead. See Versions and updates.

3

Validate

In your shell, run claude plugin validate --strict ./your-plugin. A clean run prints ✔ Validation passed.

  • In CI: keep --strict, which also fails the run with exit code 1 on warnings such as an unknown manifest field or a missing version. Drop --strict if you chose to omit version in the previous step.
  • Paths: validation reports component paths that don't start with ./. Inside hook commands and MCP server configs, refer to files as ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/.... See path rules.
4

Install it from a local marketplace

In your shell, add a local marketplace that lists the plugin with claude plugin marketplace add ./path-to-marketplace, install the plugin from it, and start a session to confirm it loads.

5

Fill in the metadata users see

Set description, author, homepage, and repository in plugin.json, and add a README.md at the plugin root. homepage must parse as a URL. The manifest reference lists every field.

6

Run your eval suite

If you have an eval suite, run claude plugin eval in your shell. It runs the plugin's test cases and scores the results, which catches regressions when you change the plugin. See Test plugins with evals.

Share a plugin without a marketplace

If the plugin is in a git repository, people can clone it and load the checkout, or start Claude Code from their shell with --plugin-url pointed at a .zip you attach to a release. To get your next version they pull or download again. If it isn't in a repository, send them the directory or a .zip of it. They load it in one of two ways:

  • For one session: they start Claude Code from their shell with claude --plugin-dir ./deploy-helper, where the path is the clone, the unzipped folder, or the .zip itself. See Flags that load a plugin for one session.
  • For every session: they move the plugin directory, with its .claude-plugin/plugin.json, under ~/.claude/skills/ so Claude Code loads it in every session.

Adding a .claude-plugin/marketplace.json to that same repository is what lets people install by name and update with a command; see Publish through your own marketplace.

Ship a plugin with your own tool

If you maintain a CLI or SDK, publish the plugin in a marketplace and have your installer or post-install message run or print the two commands a user needs: claude plugin marketplace add <source>, then claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace>. For in-session discovery when someone uses your tool, see Recommend your plugin from your CLI.

Publish through your own marketplace

Your own marketplace is a .claude-plugin/marketplace.json file that lists your plugin, added to a git repository. Once the file is in the repository, the plugin is published, with no submission form. You can keep the file in the plugin's own repository or in a separate one.

Add the marketplace file to your repository

To publish from the plugin's own repository, save the marketplace file beside plugin.json in .claude-plugin/, with one entry whose source is "./", the repository root. Give the entry the same name as plugin.json, per Keep the entry name and the manifest name the same:

{
  "name": "your-marketplace",
  "owner": { "name": "Your Name" },
  "plugins": [
    { "name": "deploy-helper", "source": "./" }
  ]
}

In your shell, run claude plugin validate . in the repository to check the file before you push.

Create a marketplace covers the layout with several plugins in one repository.

Control who can install

Anyone who can clone the repository can install from it, so if the repository is private, the marketplace is private too. For hosts other than a git repository, see Host a marketplace. To reach everyone at a company, including people who don't use git, see Roll out to a whole company.

Tell users how to install

Tell your users to add the marketplace and then install the plugin from their shell, replacing the source and names with yours:

  • Add the marketplace once: claude plugin marketplace add your-org/your-marketplace, where the argument is a GitHub owner/repo shorthand, a URL, or a path
  • Install the plugin: claude plugin install deploy-helper@your-marketplace
  • Or do both from inside a session: /plugin install deploy-helper --marketplace your-org/your-marketplace. Requires Claude Code v2.1.275 or later. See Add a marketplace and install in one command

Ship updates to users

Users receive a release when they ask for it or when auto-update is on for your marketplace:

  • On request: claude plugin update deploy-helper@your-marketplace in the user's shell refreshes the marketplace and installs the new copy when your plugin's version has changed
  • Auto-update: off by default for your marketplace. See Turn on auto-update. Once on, it does the same as claude plugin update on a delay after the session starts

Install plugins covers the user-side commands, and when auto-update runs covers the timing.

Submit to Anthropic's directory

Anthropic's directory is the catalog people browse on claude.ai and in Cowork to add plugins and connectors. One listing there reaches people on claude.ai, in Cowork, and in Claude Code. You submit from the developer portal at claude.ai/directory/manage; Prepare for review on claude.com describes what happens to each version before it's published.

Submitting requires a paid claude.ai plan. On Pro and Max you submit from your own account. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner can submit, and on Enterprise an Owner can also grant the Directory permission to other members through a custom role under Organization settings > Roles. See Confirm you can submit to the directory.

The submission steps, the checks each version must pass, and what happens after you publish are documented on claude.com, because they're the same whichever surface your users are on:

Before you open the portal, validate locally and check which of your components load outside Claude Code:

  • Run claude plugin validate ./your-plugin --strict in your shell: replace ./your-plugin with the path to your plugin directory. The command catches manifest errors locally; plugin validate lists which files each run reads. The portal applies additional directory rules that the CLI doesn't check, so a clean local run doesn't guarantee a clean portal validation.
  • Check what loads where: some plugin components are Claude Code-only and don't load on claude.ai or in Cowork. The component support table lists each component by app, so you know what users outside Claude Code will get.

Anthropic's official marketplace, claude-plugins-official, doesn't take submissions through the directory portal. If you work with an Anthropic partner contact, ask them about an official-marketplace listing.

How a listed plugin reaches Claude Code users

A person who installs your plugin from the directory on claude.ai has it on their account, and Claude Code loads it as <name>@synced. Plugins synced from claude.ai covers what they see and how they turn it off.

Ship updates, renames, and removals

Release a new version

If you publish through your own marketplace and your plugin.json sets version, increment it and push. Users who run claude plugin update or have auto-update on then receive the new version, as described under Ship updates to users. For a directory listing, see Update a published plugin.

Tag a release

Tag the release in git when other plugins declare a version range on yours, because those ranges resolve against tags. Otherwise you don't need a tag.

To tag, run claude plugin tag in your shell from the plugin directory. It creates a {name}--v{version} tag. Add --push to send the tag to origin. The plugin tag reference lists its flags.

Rename or remove a plugin

Never change a published plugin's name. After a rename, users who already installed it lose the plugin, because their install is recorded under the old name. A renames entry in your marketplace file migrates them instead. Change displayName when you want a different label.

If a rename is unavoidable, use the marketplace file's renames map so that existing installs migrate instead of failing with Plugin "<name>" not found in marketplace. To remove a plugin from the marketplace, or for the full renames details, see Rename or remove a plugin on the hosting page. The marketplace reference has the field.

Declare dependencies

If your plugin needs another plugin from the same marketplace to be enabled, list it in the dependencies array of plugin.json. Each entry is a bare name or an object with a semver version range. When a user installs your plugin, Claude Code installs and enables the dependency too.

Plugin dependencies covers the range syntax, cross-marketplace dependencies, and how users prune dependencies they no longer need.

Next steps