Manage marketplaces from the CLI

Claude Code provides non-interactive claude plugin marketplace subcommands for scripting and automation. These are equivalent to the /plugin marketplace commands available inside an interactive session.

Plugin marketplace add

Add a marketplace from a GitHub repository, git URL, remote URL, or local path.

claude plugin marketplace add <source> [options]

Arguments:

• <source>: GitHub owner/repo shorthand, git URL, remote URL to a marketplace.json file, or local directory path. To pin to a branch or tag, append @ref to the GitHub shorthand or #ref to a git URL

A URL must include its scheme. As of Claude Code v2.1.196, a host typed without one, such as gitlab.example.com/team/plugins, is rejected as an invalid owner/repo shorthand and the error tells you to add https:// or use ./ for a local path. Earlier versions misread it as a GitHub repository path and fail at clone time with a GitHub not-found error.

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--scope <scope>	Where to declare the marketplace: user, project, or local. See Plugin installation scopes	user
--sparse <paths...>	Limit checkout to specific directories via git sparse-checkout. Useful for monorepos

Add a marketplace from GitHub using owner/repo shorthand:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins

Pin to a specific branch or tag with @ref:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins@v2.0

Add from a git URL on a non-GitHub host:

claude plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.example.com/team/plugins.git

Add from a remote URL that serves the marketplace.json file directly:

claude plugin marketplace add https://example.com/marketplace.json

Add from a local directory for testing:

claude plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace

Declare the marketplace at project scope so it is shared with your team via .claude/settings.json:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/claude-plugins --scope project

For a monorepo, limit the checkout to the directories that contain plugin content:

claude plugin marketplace add acme-corp/monorepo --sparse .claude-plugin plugins

Plugin marketplace list

List all configured marketplaces.

claude plugin marketplace list [options]

Options:

Option	Description
--json	Output as JSON

With --json, each entry includes name, source, an installLocation field with the local cache path where the marketplace is stored, and source-specific fields: repo for GitHub sources, url for git and URL sources, and path for local sources. GitHub and git sources also include a ref field when the marketplace was added with a pinned branch or tag.

Plugin marketplace remove

Remove a configured marketplace. The alias rm is also accepted.

claude plugin marketplace remove <name> [options]

Arguments:

• <name>: marketplace name to remove, as shown by claude plugin marketplace list. This is the name from marketplace.json, not the source you passed to add

Options:

Option	Description	Default
--scope <scope>	Restrict removal to a single settings scope: user, project, or local. See Plugin installation scopes. When omitted, the declaration is removed from every editable scope. When given, only that scope's declaration is removed; the shared state, cache, and installed plugin data are preserved when the marketplace is still declared in another scope	(all scopes)

Removing a marketplace from its last remaining scope also uninstalls any plugins you installed from it. To refresh a marketplace without losing installed plugins, use claude plugin marketplace update instead.

Plugin marketplace update

Refresh marketplaces from their sources to retrieve new plugins and version changes. A marketplace added with a branch or tag ref updates to the latest commit of that ref, not the repository's default branch.

claude plugin marketplace update [name]

Arguments:

• [name]: marketplace name to update, as shown by claude plugin marketplace list. Updates all marketplaces if omitted

Both remove and update fail when run against a seed-managed marketplace, which is read-only. When updating all marketplaces, seed-managed entries are skipped and other marketplaces still update. To change seed-provided plugins, ask your administrator to update the seed image. See Pre-populate plugins for containers.