Plugins

Plugins are the right tool when you want a capability to be installable, shareable, and versioned. Whether you want to use an existing extension or package your team’s workflow into one, this section stays focused on three practical questions: when to use a plugin, where to install it from, and how to tell if it actually improves your work.

Start here

When plugins are worth considering

• you want commands, Agents, Skills, or MCP config to work across projects
• you want teammates to share the same workflow after installation
• you want capability updates to be versioned instead of scattered across chats and temporary files

When you may not need a plugin yet

• you are only testing an idea inside one project
• you only need a few local commands or prompts
• the workflow is still changing too quickly to package well

In those cases, project-local .claude/ config is usually faster and lighter.

Recommended reading order

If this is your first time working with plugins, follow this order:

1. Start with Understand plugins first
2. Then run through Discover and install plugins
3. If you are unsure which kinds of plugins to try first, read Choose plugins by job
4. If you are making a sourcing decision, read Choose plugin sources
5. Only after that move into Create Plugins

Plugins vs project-local config

Shortest useful path

/plugin marketplace list
/plugin install code-simplifier@claude-plugins-official
/plugin list

The goal is not to install many plugins. The goal is to install one small capability that clearly improves a task you already do often.