manage-marketplace

Marketplace Manager

Guidelines for authoring, appending, and distributing plugin marketplace catalogs.

Step 1: Initialize the Marketplace

To create a new marketplace:

1. Create directory: Create a dedicated git repository or local path for the catalog.
2. Create config directory: Create a .claude-plugin/ directory at the root.
3. Create catalog file: Create a marketplace.json file inside .claude-plugin/.
4. Add basic setup metadata (name must be kebab-case):

   {
     "name": "my-marketplace",
     "owner": {
       "name": "My Name",
       "email": "[email protected]"
     },
     "plugins": []
   }
   

Reserved names (blocked by Claude Code): claude-code-marketplace, claude-code-plugins, claude-plugins-official, anthropic-marketplace, anthropic-plugins, agent-skills, knowledge-work-plugins, life-sciences. Names that impersonate official marketplaces (e.g. official-claude-plugins) are also blocked.

Step 2: Add Plugin Entries

To add entries to your marketplace plugins list:

1. Define the name (kebab-case).
2. Specify the source — choose the type that matches your hosting:

Source Types

Same-repo subdirectory (monorepo — verified working)

{ "source": "./plugins/my-plugin-folder" }

Path is resolved relative to the marketplace root (the directory containing .claude-plugin/), not from .claude-plugin/ itself. Must start with ./.

Note: Relative paths only work when the marketplace is added via Git (GitHub, GitLab, git URL). If added via a direct URL to marketplace.json, relative paths fail — use github, npm, or url sources instead.

GitHub repository

{ "source": { "source": "github", "repo": "owner/repo", "ref": "v2.0.0", "sha": "a1b2c3d..." } }

ref and sha are optional. Omit to use the default branch.

Monorepo subdirectory via sparse clone (avoids fetching whole repo)

{ "source": { "source": "git-subdir", "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo", "path": "plugins/my-plugin" } }

Note: field is path (not subdir), and the key is source (not type). Also accepts GitHub shorthand or SSH URLs.