marketplace

Claude Code marketplace authoring

A marketplace is a catalogue of plugins. It's a single JSON file (.claude-plugin/marketplace.json) at the root of a git repo, served as a static URL, or kept on a local path. Users add the marketplace once; afterwards every plugin in it is installable by name@marketplace.

Quick mental model

• A marketplace owns the index, not the plugins. Most marketplaces point at plugins hosted elsewhere (GitHub repos, git URLs, npm packages).
• Plugins are referenced by name. The source field tells Claude Code how to fetch each one. Five source forms exist (string, github, url, git-subdir, npm).
• All git-based source types (github, url, git-subdir) share the same pinning fields: ref? (branch/tag) and sha? (exact commit).
• A marketplace can list plugins it doesn't host (catalogue) and plugins from other marketplaces can be depended on if both sides opt in via allowCrossMarketplaceDependenciesOn.
• A marketplace can dogfood itself: list its own plugins via relative-path sources (optionally simplified by metadata.pluginRoot).

When to use which reference

If the user wants to…	Read
Look up a field name, source-type schema, or strict/version semantics	references/schema.md
Build a new marketplace from scratch — pick a layout, write the file, validate	references/setup.md
Ship a marketplace — host it, pin plugin versions, set up release channels, manage cache	references/publishing.md
Compose marketplaces — list third-party plugins, recommend other marketplaces, allow cross-marketplace deps, build a "merger" marketplace	references/referencing.md

Worked examples

Full, valid marketplace.json files in examples/ — copy and adapt:

File	Pattern
minimal.json	Smallest valid marketplace
dogfood.json	Self-hosted, plugins in same repo with pluginRoot
catalogue.json	Third-party listings; one of every source type
release-channels.json	Two marketplaces pointing at stable vs latest refs
cross-marketplace-deps.json	allowCrossMarketplaceDependenciesOn opt-in
team-recommendations.json	.claude/settings.json snippet (not a marketplace file) showing extraKnownMarketplaces
inline-plugin.json	Marketplace entry that declares components inline (strict: false)

When NOT to use this skill

• Authoring an individual plugin's plugin.json → use the plugin-dev skill.
• Authoring an individual skill → use the skill-creator skill.
• Resolving "which plugin version do I get?" from the consumer side — plugin-dev covers that. This skill covers the publisher side.