Claude Code plugin marketplaces
The distribution layer for Claude Code plugins — anyone can publish a marketplace, and organisations can steer which plugins their developers see.
Plugins are installed from marketplaces, and the marketplace mechanism is itself open — Anthropic documents creating and distributing your own.
Four documented pieces, and what they tell you
| Page | What it is really for |
|---|---|
| Discover plugins | Finding and installing |
| Create a marketplace | Publishing your own |
| Plugin relevance | Steering which plugins an organisation’s developers see |
| Plugin dependencies | Constraining versions so an update cannot break a workflow |
The last two are the tell. This is not designed as an app store for individuals — it is designed for a company standardising its developers on an internal set of capabilities, with version pinning so that set stays stable.
Combined with server-managed settings and managed MCP, it is the third leg of actually governing a Claude Code rollout rather than hoping for one.
The security question, plainly
A marketplace listing is not a review. Before installing anything you did not write, three questions:
- What hooks does it register? Those are shell commands running with your privileges.
- What MCP servers does it configure? Those hold credentials and can write.
- What permissions do those two together imply?
Anthropic maintains the anthropic/skills source as the reference
collection. Everything else is somebody’s code.
Security notes
A plugin can register hooks that run shell commands and configure MCP servers that hold credentials. Marketplaces are a distribution mechanism, not a review process — publishing to one implies no security audit by Anthropic or by this reference.
Related concepts
Plugins
GADistributable bundles that install skills, commands, hooks, MCP servers and agents together, discovered through marketplaces.
Agent Stack
Agent Skills
GAFolders of instructions, scripts and resources that Claude loads on demand when a task calls for them — packaged, portable expertise rather than a longer prompt.
Agent Stack
Settings and the .claude directory
GAWhere Claude Code stores configuration — the layered settings files, the .claude directory, and the environment variables that override both.
Claude Code
Sources
- 01Discover and install prebuilt plugins through marketplacesOfficialcode.claude.com
- 02Create and distribute a plugin marketplaceOfficialcode.claude.com
- 03Recommend plugins for your orgOfficialcode.claude.com
- 04Constrain plugin dependency versionsOfficialcode.claude.com