Purpose
Claude Code Plugin Official Directory (claude-plugins-official) is a curated directory maintained by Anthropic, used to gather high-quality Claude Code plugins. The directory itself is a plugin marketplace, from which users can discover and install plugins to extend the capabilities of Claude Code.
Main Capabilities and Directory Structure
The directory is divided into two parts:
- /plugins: Internal plugins developed and maintained by Anthropic's internal teams. Among them, /plugins/example-plugin provides a reference implementation.
- /external_plugins: Third-party plugins from partners and the community.
External plugins must meet quality and security standards to be approved for inclusion. Third-party partners can submit new plugins through the plugin directory submission form.
Usage
Plugins can be installed directly from this marketplace through Claude Code's plugin system:
- Run the command: /plugin install {plugin-name}@claude-plugins-official
- Or browse and find plugins in /plugin > Discover
Plugin Structure Description
Each plugin follows a standard structure. Regarding plugin names: the name field in a marketplace entry is an immutable slug. Once a plugin is published, its name must not be changed—users have already installed it by that slug, and renaming will cause plugin-not-found errors during installation. To change the display label of a plugin in the interface, set or update displayName. If renaming truly cannot be avoided, add an entry to the top-level renames mapping in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json so that existing installations automatically migrate; the Claude Code plugin loader reads this mapping and transparently rewrites the old slug to the new slug the next time the user syncs.
Skill-bundle Plugins
When a plugin's source repository provides skills (SKILL.md files) but has no .claude-plugin/plugin.json manifest, the marketplace entry can use strict: false and an explicit skills arrayto declare these skills directly. Each path in skills is relative to source.path and points to a directory containing SKILL.md. Paths can go multiple levels deep, for example ["./libA/skill-1", "./libB/skill-2"] can expose a curated subset across multiple library subdirectories. Each skill is registered in Claude Code as <plugin-name>:<skill-name>. For the underlying schema, see Strict mode in the marketplace documentation.
Applicable Scenarios
Suitable for developers who want to extend the functionality of Claude Code, including finding official internal plugins, browsing third-party partner and community plugins, and quickly installing the required plugins through the plugin system.
Limitations and Notes
The official documentation explicitly reminds: before installing, updating, or using a plugin, make sure you trust the plugin. Anthropic does not control the MCP servers, files, or other software included in plugins, and cannot verify that they will work as expected or will not change. For more information, see each plugin's homepage. For the license agreement of each plugin, see the LICENSE file of the corresponding plugin. For more information about developing Claude Code plugins, see the official documentation.
