Agent Skill

Plugin Structure skill

Plugin Structureanthropics/claude-codeplugins/plugin-dev/skills/plugin-structure/SKILL.md

This skill should be used when the user asks to "create a plugin", "scaffold a plugin", "understand plugin structure", "organize plugin components", "set up plugin.json", "use ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}", "add commands/agents/skills/hooks", "configure auto-discovery", or needs guidance on plugin directory layout, manifest configuration, component organization, file naming conventions, or Claude Code plugin architecture best practices.

153k

always on

92 tokname + description

once used

3,110 tokSKILL.md body

bundled files

660 KB

repo stars

153kGitHub

Install the Plugin Structure skill

Skills CLI (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others)

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code --skill 'Plugin Structure'

Claude Code, by hand (all projects)

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code.git /tmp/claude-code
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/claude-code/plugins/plugin-dev/skills/plugin-structure ~/.claude/skills/plugin-structure

For one project only, copy the folder into .claude/skills/ in that project instead. The agent picks it up when a task matches its description.

What it costs your context

Agent Skills load in three steps. Tokens counted with the o200k tokenizer; your model's count will differ a little.

When	What loads	Cost
Every session	Name and description	92 tok
When the agent uses it	The SKILL.md instructions	3,110 tok
Only if opened	6 bundled files (60 KB)	varies

Until it is used, Plugin Structure costs about 15× less than the median MCP server we measured (1,362 tokens on every turn). Installing all 10 skills from anthropics/claude-code would load 819 tokens of descriptions. Skills vs MCP study

Checks

The name breaks the specification (lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens, up to 64 characters).

Checked 2026-10-22 · method

What's inside

The headings of its SKILL.md. Read the full file on GitHub.

Plugin Structure for Claude Code
Overview
Directory Structure
Plugin Manifest (plugin.json)
Required Fields
Recommended Metadata
Component Path Configuration
Component Organization
Commands
Agents
Skills
Hooks
MCP Servers
Portable Path References
${CLAUDEPLUGINROOT}
Path Resolution Rules
File Naming Conventions
Component Files
Supporting Files
Auto-Discovery Mechanism
Best Practices
Organization
Naming
Portability

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