claude plugin: Install and Manage Bundles of Skills at Once

Setting up features one by one takes quite a bit of time. It's especially tedious when you need to install the exact same environment for every member of your team. This is where a plugin comes in: it bundles related features together so you can install them all at once, and claude plugin is the command that manages them.

Definition (what it is)

claude plugin is the command for installing and managing plugins.

A plugin is best understood as "a package that wraps up skills and connections into one bundle." Here, a skill is like an instruction manual that teaches Claude to do a specific task well, and a connection refers to linking external apps like the MCP we saw earlier. A plugin packs both into a single bag, so installing just one brings in all the related features at once.

How to use it (by difficulty)

Basic — Viewing the list of installed plugins

claude plugins

Entering this command shows you the list of plugins currently installed. It's the first thing to run when you want to check "what did I install again?"

Intermediate — Installing from the marketplace

claude plugin install code-review@claude-plugins-official

Write a plugin name after install and it fetches and installs it from the marketplace (the official plugin repository). The example above installs a code-review plugin. The claude-plugins-official after the @ indicates the source — "which repository to pull it from."

Advanced — Developing a local plugin

claude --plugin-dir ./my-plugin

If you specify a folder with --plugin-dir, you can load a plugin you're developing inside that folder and test it for this session only. ./my-plugin means "the my-plugin folder inside the current folder." If you're building a plugin yourself, this is handy because you can try it out right away without a formal install.

Common pitfalls

• Use claude plugins (plural) to view the list, and claude plugin install when installing — the form changes slightly depending on the use. If a command doesn't work, check the singular vs. plural.
• A plugin loaded via --plugin-dir only works temporarily for that session. To keep using it, you need a formal install.

Real-world example

If you bundle the three skills you use for blog work (planning, research, writing) into a single plugin, you can share the exact same working environment with a teammate just by saying "install this." It solves, in one step, the problem of everyone spending time configuring separately or getting inconsistent results because each person's environment differs.

Taking it further

Once you're comfortable with the skills and connections you frequently use together, it's worth bundling them into a plugin as a package. Later, whether you're starting work on a new PC or a new teammate joins, you can set up an identical environment with "one install." It's like organizing your team's own working set into a single bundle.

Summary

claude plugin is the command for installing and managing plugins that bundle skills and connections together. Use claude plugins to view the list, claude plugin install to install from the marketplace, and --plugin-dir to test a plugin you're developing. It's especially useful for deploying an identical environment to your team all at once.

Based on: Claude Code v2.1.154 (2026.05)