Claude Code Skills, Agents & Plugins
Personal monorepo for developing Claude Code plugins — skills (slash commands), subagents,
hooks, and MCP server configs. Each plugin under plugins/ is independently installable.
Installation
# Test locally during development (session-only)
claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/<name>
# Install permanently (user scope)
claude plugin install ./plugins/<name>
# Install from GitHub (when a plugin has its own repo)
claude plugin install https://github.com/bcmcpher/<plugin-name>
Plugins
| Plugin | Description |
|---|
| example-hello | Working example: /hello skill + greeter subagent |
| boutiques | /boutiques <cmd> [subcmd] — generate a Boutiques 0.5 JSON descriptor from --help output |
| testing | /tdd for test-first development; /retrofit-tests for adding coverage to existing code |
Templates
Start new tools by copying a template:
cp -r templates/skill plugins/my-new-skill
cp -r templates/agent plugins/my-new-agent
cp -r templates/plugin plugins/my-new-plugin
Then replace all PLUGIN_NAME, SKILL_NAME, AGENT_NAME placeholders with real names.
Each template includes a SETUP.md with detailed setup instructions — it's the first thing to read after copying and the last thing to replace with your own README.md.
Creating a new plugin
1. Choose a template
| If you want… | Use |
|---|
| A slash command or auto-triggered instruction set | templates/skill |
| A specialized subagent with its own context and policy | templates/agent |
| Both, plus hooks or MCP servers | templates/plugin |
Start with the smallest template that covers your need. You can always promote a skill to a full plugin later.
2. Copy and rename
cp -r templates/skill plugins/my-new-skill # or agent / plugin
Then rename the placeholder directories inside:
mv plugins/my-new-skill/skills/SKILL_NAME plugins/my-new-skill/skills/my-new-skill
3. Edit the manifest (plugin.json)
Open .claude-plugin/plugin.json and fill in every placeholder:
name — kebab-case slug, shown in listings and used internallydescription — one sentence; what does this plugin do?version — start at 0.1.0skills / agents — paths to your SKILL.md directories (update after renaming)
Leave hooks and mcpConfig out of the manifest entirely if you're not using them.
4. Write the SKILL.md
For skills: the description frontmatter field is what Claude reads to decide when to auto-invoke the skill. Make it specific about the trigger condition and what the skill produces. The name field becomes the slash command (name: commit → /commit).
For agents: the description field is a delegation trigger — it describes when the main Claude should hand off work to this agent. The body of the file is the agent's system prompt; write it as a policy (purpose statement, explicit steps, hard constraints).
5. Test locally
claude --plugin-dir ./plugins/my-new-skill
Inside the session, invoke your skill with /skill-name or describe a task that should trigger it. Edit SKILL.md, exit and relaunch to reload.
6. Install permanently
claude plugin install ./plugins/my-new-skill
When to graduate a plugin to its own repo
Keep it in this monorepo while:
- Iterating / experimenting
- Using via
--plugin-dir path or GitHub subpath
- Tool is personal or early-stage
Graduate to a standalone repo when:
- You want semantic versioning and a CHANGELOG
- Publishing to the Claude Code marketplace (marketplace points to a repo URL)
- Plugin has its own tests, CI, or external dependencies
- Others should be able to
claude plugin install github.com/bcmcpher/<name>
Graduation checklist
# 1. Create the new repo and push the plugin contents (not the whole monorepo)
gh repo create bcmcpher/<plugin-name> --public --clone
cp -r plugins/<plugin-name>/. <plugin-name>/
cd <plugin-name> && git add . && git init && git commit -m "initial commit"
git remote add origin https://github.com/bcmcpher/<plugin-name>
git push -u origin main
Then in the new repo:
