Claude Code Skill Plugin Packaging

Native mechanism

Plugins and plugin marketplaces are Claude Code's own distribution mechanism — a marketplace repo with .claude-plugin/marketplace.json gives "centralized discovery, version tracking, automatic updates". What the official docs don't spell out in one place is the depth-1 discovery trap and the install-model tradeoffs below — that's what this skill adds.

• Official sources: when verifying or updating a factual or version-sensitive claim, read references/official-docs.md.

When to invoke

• You have skills in one repo and want them reusable across other repos/projects.
• Wiring an existing skill plugin (e.g. apple-dev-skills) into a new project.
• Deciding flat project skills vs a plugin.
• A submodule/nested folder of skills "isn't being discovered" and you don't know why.
• Aggregating other people's skill repos without copy-pasting.
• User asks "how do I share/install skills", "why is my .claude/skills/<lib>/... not found".

The one rule that explains everything: plain-skill discovery is depth-1 — unless the nested tree is itself a plugin