plugins

Install open-plugin format plugins into coding agents and editors, including Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Grok Build, Kimi Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and VS Code.

npx plugins add owner/repo

Usage

Add plugins from a GitHub repo

# GitHub shorthand
npx plugins add vercel/vercel-plugin

# Full HTTPS URL
npx plugins add https://github.com/vercel/vercel-plugin

# SSH URL (auto-retries via HTTPS if SSH auth fails)
npx plugins add [email protected]:vercel/vercel-plugin.git

Add plugins from a local directory

npx plugins add ./my-plugins
npx plugins add /absolute/path/to/plugins

Discover plugins without installing

npx plugins discover owner/repo

List detected agent tools

npx plugins targets

Commands

| Command | Description | | --------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | plugins add <source> | Discover and install plugins from a source | | plugins discover <source> | Inspect plugins without installing (dry run) | | plugins targets | List available agent tools and their detection status |

If no subcommand is given, plugins <source> defaults to add.

Flags

| Flag | Short | Default | Description | | ---------- | ----- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | --target | -t | auto-detect | Install to a specific agent tool (for example, grok or vscode) | | --scope | -s | user | Installation scope: user, project, or local | | --yes | -y | false | Skip the confirmation prompt | | --help | -h | | Show usage information |

Supported targets

The CLI auto-detects which agent tools are installed and installs to all of them.

| Target | Detection | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | | Claude Code | claude binary on PATH | | Cursor | cursor binary on PATH | | Codex | codex binary on PATH | | Grok Build | grok binary on PATH | | Kimi Code | kimi on PATH or Kimi's install directory | | GitHub Copilot CLI | copilot binary on PATH | | Visual Studio Code | code or code-insiders binary on PATH |

Target details

• Codex installs vercel/vercel-plugin through Codex's curated vercel@openai-curated marketplace entry. That native package contains the Codex-supported Vercel surfaces and avoids upstream lifecycle hooks that are not compatible with Codex.
• Grok Build uses its native grok plugin install command. Its Claude Code compatibility provides skills, commands, agents, hooks, MCP servers, and LSP support.
• Kimi Code installs into its native plugin store, which the /plugins TUI reads on reload. Kimi plugins support skills, commands, hooks, and MCP servers; Kimi does not currently expose plugin agents or LSP servers.
• GitHub Copilot CLI registers the source with copilot plugin marketplace add, then installs plugin@marketplace. This avoids Copilot's deprecated direct local-path installs and keeps copilot plugin update working. This is the standalone Copilot CLI, not the legacy gh copilot extension.
• VS Code registers the staged OpenPlugin directory in its user-level chat.pluginLocations setting. VS Code agent plugins are currently a Preview feature; enable chat.plugins.enabled if your organization manages that setting.

Kimi, Copilot CLI, and VS Code install plugins per-user. Their native plugin systems do not currently provide the CLI's project or local installation scopes.

How it works

Source resolution

The CLI accepts GitHub shorthand (owner/repo), HTTPS URLs, SSH URLs, or local paths. Remote repos are shallow-cloned to ~/.cache/plugins/<slug>. SSH URLs that fail automatically retry via HTTPS.

Plugin discovery

Discovery follows a 3-step fallback:

1. Marketplace index — looks for a marketplace.json that indexes multiple plugins
2. Root plugin — checks if the repo root itself is a plugin
3. Recursive scan — scans subdirectories (up to 2 levels deep) for plugin directories

A plugin is any directory containing skills, commands, agents, rules, hooks, MCP servers, or LSP servers.

Installation

The CLI translates the vendor-neutral .plugin/ format into target-specific formats, then installs via the target's native plugin system. Plugin authors write once; the CLI handles the rest.

Environment variables

| Variable | Purpose | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | DISABLE_TELEMETRY | Disable anonymous install telemetry | | DO_NOT_TRACK | Disable anonymous install telemetry (standard) | | NO_COLOR | Disable color output | | FORCE_COLOR | Force color output |

Development

npm install
npm run build
node dist/index.js --help

Zero runtime dependencies. Built with tsup as a single bundled ESM file targeting Node.js 18+.

License

Apache 2.0