How to Install and Manage Claude Code Plugins

Published: October 14, 2025 | Read time: 6 minutes

Claude Code plugins are powerful tools for extending your development environment. This guide will show you how to discover, install, and manage these plugins to take full advantage of Claude Code's extensibility.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have Claude Code installed and running on your machine.
You'll need a basic understanding of the command-line interface.

Step 1: Add Plugin Marketplaces

Plugin marketplaces are catalogs for discovering available plugins. You can add custom marketplaces from the community or your team.

How to Add a Marketplace?

Use the /plugin marketplace add command, followed by the marketplace identifier (usually in owner/repository format).

/plugin marketplace add your-org/claude-plugins

Once added, you can browse all the plugins offered by that marketplace.

How to Browse Plugins?

Simply run the /plugin command to open the plugin management interface. Here, you can view available plugins from all your added marketplaces.

For more details on marketplace management, such as using Git repositories, local development, and team distribution, refer to the official plugin marketplace documentation.

Step 2: Install a Plugin

You can install plugins in two main ways:

1. Via the Interactive Menu (Recommended for Discovery)

This is the most intuitive method, especially when you're not sure which plugin you need.

/plugin

In the interface that opens, select "Browse Plugins." You'll see a list with plugin descriptions, features, and installation options. This helps you make an informed choice.

2. Via Direct Command (For Quick Installation)

If you already know which plugin you want to install, this is the fastest method.

/plugin install formatter@your-org

Here, formatter is the plugin name, and your-org is the name of the marketplace it belongs to.

Step 3: Manage Installed Plugins

After installing a plugin, you might need to enable, disable, or uninstall it completely.

Enable a Plugin: If a plugin was previously disabled, you can re-enable it with the following command:
```
/plugin enable plugin-name@marketplace-name
```
Disable a Plugin: Sometimes you may want to temporarily turn off a plugin's functionality without permanently deleting it. This can help reduce the complexity of your system prompts.
```
/plugin disable plugin-name@marketplace-name
```
Uninstall a Plugin: If you're sure you no longer need a plugin, you can remove it completely.
```
/plugin uninstall plugin-name@marketplace-name
```

Step 4: Verify the Installation

After installing a new plugin, how do you confirm it's working correctly?

Check Available Commands: Run the /help command. If the plugin added new slash commands, they should appear in the list.
Test Plugin Functionality: Try using the commands or features provided by the plugin to ensure they work as expected.
View Plugin Details: Run /plugin and select "Manage Plugins." Here, you can see detailed information about your installed plugins and understand what features (commands, agents, hooks, etc.) they provide.

Setting Up a Plugin Workflow for Your Team

To ensure your entire team uses a consistent set of tools, you can configure plugins at the project's repository level. When a team member trusts your repository folder, Claude Code will automatically install the specified marketplaces and plugins for them.

Setup Steps:

Add the marketplace and plugin configurations to the .claude/settings.json file in your repository.
Team members need to "trust" the repository folder in their Claude Code.
Once trusted, the required plugins will be automatically installed for all team members.

This approach greatly simplifies the onboarding process for new members and ensures a consistent development environment. For detailed configuration examples and best practices, refer to the documentation on configuring team marketplaces.

Conclusion

By learning how to add marketplaces, install, and manage plugins, you've now mastered the core skills for customizing and extending Claude Code. Whether for personal use or team collaboration, the plugin system offers you unparalleled flexibility and power.

Start exploring the community plugin marketplace today, or build a custom plugin workflow for you and your team!

Discover a world of powerful plugins and integrations at https://claudecodeplugins.dev/. Add the official community marketplace to get started:

/plugin marketplace add ccplugins/marketplace