Create Plugin

Create Plugin Skill

Interactive wizard for creating new Claude Code plugins with proper structure and validation.

When to Use

• User invokes /plugin-creator:create-plugin
• User asks "create a plugin"
• User mentions "new plugin" or "scaffold plugin"
• User wants to start plugin development

Official Documentation

Reference these official resources:

• Plugin Structure
• Plugin Reference
• Skills Guide

Process

1. Initialize Plugin

/plugin-creator:create-plugin my-awesome-plugin

The wizard will:

1. Invoke custom-plugin-architect agent
2. Ask clarifying questions:
   • What's the plugin purpose?
   • What type? (workflow, analysis, utility, meta)
   • What components needed? (skills, agents, hooks)
3. Suggest optimal architecture
4. Create base structure

2. Create Structure

Creates complete plugin directory:

my-awesome-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json          # Plugin manifest
├── skills/                   # User-invocable workflows
│   └── (empty, ready for skills)
├── agents/                   # Specialized sub-agents
│   └── (empty, ready for agents)
├── hooks/                    # Event handlers
│   └── (empty, ready for hooks)
└── README.md                 # User documentation

3. Generate plugin.json

Creates valid manifest with:

{
  "name": "my-awesome-plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Brief description of plugin",
  "author": {
    "name": "Your Name"
  },
  "keywords": ["category", "tags"],
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "https://github.com/user/repo"
  },
  "license": "MIT"
}

Note: Commands, skills, agents, hooks are auto-discovered from directories. Don't list them manually in plugin.json.

4. Next Steps

After scaffolding, the wizard guides you to:

1. Add Skills → Use /skill-creator:create for focused skill creation
2. Add Agents → The custom-agent-development skill auto-activates to guide
3. Add Hooks → The custom-hook-development skill auto-activates to guide
4. Validate → Run /plugin-creator:validate-plugin-structure to check structure
5. Test → Symlink and test: ln -s $(pwd) ~/.claude/plugins/my-awesome-plugin

Examples

Example 1: Workflow Plugin

/plugin-creator:create-plugin task-workflow

# Wizard asks:
# - Purpose? "Structured task management with dependencies"
# - Type? workflow
# - Components? skills, agents
#
# Creates:
# - Base structure
# - README template
# - plugin.json with workflow tags

Next steps:

# Add orchestrator skill
/skill-creator:create orchestrator

# Add task-organizer agent
# (custom-agent-development skill guides you)

Example 2: Analysis Plugin

/plugin-creator:create-plugin code-analyzer

# Wizard asks:
# - Purpose? "Multi-agent code quality analysis"
# - Type? analysis
# - Components? skills, agents
#
# Creates:
# - Base structure
# - README for analysis plugin
# - plugin.json with quality tags

Next steps:

# Add main analysis skill
/skill-creator:create analyze

# Add specialized agents manually
# (custom-agent-development skill guides you)

Example 3: Utility Plugin

/plugin-creator:create-plugin dev-utils

# Wizard asks:
# - Purpose? "Developer utilities and helpers"
# - Type? utility
# - Components? skills
#
# Creates:
# - Minimal structure
# - Skills directory ready

Component Types Guide

Skills

Purpose: User-invocable workflows or auto-activating helpers

When to use:

• Main entry points for users
• Orchestration logic
• Workflow guidance
• Auto-activating helpers

Create with: /skill-creator:create skill-name

Structure:

skills/
└── skill-name/
    └── SKILL.md

Agents

Purpose: Specialized autonomous workers for parallel execution

When to use:

• Specialized analysis (security, performance, etc.)
• Parallel execution tasks
• Focused expertise areas

Create with: Manual creation (auto-activating skill guides you)

Structure:

agents/
└── custom-agent-name.md

Important: Prefix with custom- to avoid collisions with built-in agents.

Hooks

Purpose: Event-driven automation and validation

When to use:

• Validate before tool execution
• Process after tool completion
• Session initialization
• Custom notifications

Create with: Manual creation (auto-activating skill guides you)

Structure:

hooks/
└── PreToolUse.sh  # Must be executable

Validation

After creating your plugin, validate it:

cd my-awesome-plugin
/plugin-creator:validate-plugin-structure

Checks:

• ✓ plugin.json format (against schema)
• ✓ Directory structure
• ✓ Skills are folders with SKILL.md
• ✓ Agents have custom- prefix
• ✓ README completeness

Best Practices

Plugin Design

• Single Responsibility: One clear purpose per plugin
• Modularity: Independent, composable components
• Documentation: Clear README with examples
• Attribution: Credit sources and inspirations

Naming Conventions

• Plugin name: kebab-case (e.g., task-management)
• Skill names: kebab-case (e.g., workflow-router)
• Agent names: custom- prefix + kebab-case (e.g., custom-validator)
• Hook names: Official event names (e.g., PreToolUse.sh)

Structure Guidelines

• Skills: Always folders with SKILL.md (not flat .md files)
• Agents: Flat .md files with frontmatter
• Hooks: Executable .sh files (chmod +x)
• Auto-discovery: Don't manually list components in plugin.json

user-invocable Flags

• Default (omit flag): Skill is user-invocable
• Set to false: Skill only auto-activates, never invoked directly

Integration with Other Plugins

skill-creator

For focused skill creation:

/skill-creator:create my-skill

workflow

For structured plugin development:

/workflow:start "Create code-review plugin"
# Stages: Spec → Dev → Exec

validation

Always validate before distributing:

/plugin-creator:validate-plugin-structure

Common Issues

Plugin not loading?

• Check plugin.json is valid JSON
• Ensure symlinked to ~/.claude/plugins/
• Validate with /plugin-creator:validate-plugin-structure

Skills not activating?

• Verify "When to Use" section is clear
• Check skills are folders (not flat .md)
• Ensure SKILL.md is uppercase

Agents not available?

• Confirm custom- prefix
• Check valid tools list
• Verify frontmatter syntax

Resources

• Official Plugin Docs
• Skills Reference
• Example Plugins
• Plugin-Dev Plugin