Install Your First Plugin

Overview

This walkthrough uses the real catalog entry api-test-automation, whose source is plugins/testing/api-test-automation. It contains the automating-api-testing skill. Catalog versions and public counts change, so this page does not fabricate an installed-version transcript or promise a fixed inventory.

Before installing, you need Claude Code, a project you are authorized to work in, and permission to enable the plugin’s capabilities. Read the plugin’s current README and source. Installation is not a security or behavioral certification.

Step 1: Find and inspect the plugin

Use Explore or the website search. Inspect the description, author, skill list, prerequisites, and source. ccpi search is currently a coming-soon stub, so do not expect it to return working catalog matches.

The helper recognizes the catalog name:

ccpi install api-test-automation

This currently displays guidance rather than performing a complete native installation transaction. Its printed legacy scope flags are not the authority for current native Claude syntax. Continue with the native commands below instead of copying those flags.

Step 2: Register the marketplace

Run this in a terminal with the intended Claude Code installation:

claude plugin marketplace add jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace

The canonical repository is jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace; the marketplace slug used by plugin installation is claude-code-plugins-plus. The native /plugin interface also provides marketplace management.

Step 3: Install with an explicit scope

From the intended project directory:

claude plugin install api-test-automation@claude-code-plugins-plus --scope project

Choose scope intentionally:

Review what the installer reports. Project scope can affect collaborators through shared settings; local and user scope have different sharing boundaries. See the native management reference before changing an existing project’s configuration.

Step 4: Confirm availability

Use the Installed view in /plugin or native claude plugin list to inspect registration and enabled state. Follow any installation summary instruction to reload plugins or start a new session; do not assume every install is immediately available in an already-running session.

Check that the expected plugin and skill appear. If they do not, inspect scope, enablement, runtime prerequisites, and native diagnostics rather than copying files into a cache directory.

Step 5: Invoke the actual skill

In a Claude Code session where the plugin is enabled:

/api-test-automation:automating-api-testing

Start with a bounded request and explicitly state the desired execution boundary:

Review the example API specification I supply and draft tests without sending requests or installing dependencies. Identify any information you need before execution.

This is an instruction example, not evidence that the skill will always satisfy the request or that a provider has been tested. Inspect its current allowed-tools, body, scripts, and applicable permission rules. Skill tool preapproval is not an exclusive sandbox. Do not supply real credentials or sensitive production payloads merely to try a tutorial.

There is no universal /review src/auth.ts command supplied by all plugins. Use the actual namespaced skill or command discovered from the installed artifact.

Step 6: Update or remove deliberately

Use the current native plugin manager for update and uninstall operations. Claude Code supports native updates; removing and reinstalling is not a required universal workaround. Review plugin-specific persistent data and configuration before removal rather than assuming they are always preserved.

The helper’s ccpi upgrade currently prints guidance; ccpi update, remove, and info are not delivered commands. See the CLI reference for the exact helper boundary.

If something fails

• Confirm the catalog name and marketplace slug instead of substituting historical examples.
• Confirm the intended scope and enabled state.
• Follow native reload or restart instructions.
• Inspect source and prerequisites before authorizing execution.
• Report exact command/version and redacted diagnostics; do not post tokens or raw private tool output.

For authoring a local instruction skill, continue with your first skill. For a local plugin directory, use claude --plugin-dir /absolute/path/to/plugin; a plain claude invocation does not automatically register an arbitrary directory as a plugin.