Plugins

Load custom plugins to extend Claude Code with commands, agents, skills, and hooks through the Agent SDK.

Official Documentation: This guide is based on the official Claude Agent SDK documentation. Examples are adapted for Elixir.

Plugins allow you to extend Claude Code with custom functionality that can be shared across projects. Through the Elixir SDK, you can programmatically load plugins from local directories to add custom slash commands, agents, skills, hooks, and MCP servers to your agent sessions.

What are plugins?

Plugins are packages of Claude Code extensions that can include:

Commands -- Custom slash commands
Agents -- Specialized subagents for specific tasks
Skills -- Model-invoked capabilities that Claude uses autonomously
Hooks -- Event handlers that respond to tool use and other events
MCP servers -- External tool integrations via Model Context Protocol

For complete information on plugin structure and how to create plugins, see Plugins.

Loading plugins

Load plugins by providing their local file system paths in your options configuration. The SDK supports loading multiple plugins from different locations. Each plugin path is passed to the CLI as a --plugin-dir flag.

# As simple path strings
{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: ["./my-plugin", "/absolute/path/to/another-plugin"]
)

# As typed configuration maps
{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [
    %{type: :local, path: "./my-plugin"},
    %{type: :local, path: "/absolute/path/to/another-plugin"}
  ]
)

# Mixed formats also work
{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [
    "./my-plugin",
    %{type: :local, path: "./another-plugin"}
  ]
)

Both path strings and %{type: :local, path: "..."} maps are accepted. See ClaudeCode.Options for the full schema.

Path specifications

Plugin paths can be:

Relative paths -- Resolved relative to your current working directory (for example, "./plugins/my-plugin")
Absolute paths -- Full file system paths (for example, "/home/user/plugins/my-plugin")

Note: The path should point to the plugin's root directory (the directory containing .claude-plugin/plugin.json).

Query-level overrides

Plugins can also be specified (or overridden) at query time:

session
|> ClaudeCode.stream("Hello",
  plugins: [
    %{type: :local, path: "./dev-plugins/experimental"}
  ]
)
|> Stream.run()

Verifying plugin installation

When plugins load successfully, they appear in the system initialization message (ClaudeCode.Message.SystemMessage). You can verify that your plugins are available by inspecting the plugins and slash_commands fields:

alias ClaudeCode.Message.SystemMessage

session
|> ClaudeCode.stream("Hello",
  plugins: [%{type: :local, path: "./my-plugin"}]
)
|> ClaudeCode.Stream.filter_type(:system)
|> Enum.each(fn
  %SystemMessage{subtype: :init, plugins: plugins, slash_commands: commands} ->
    # Check loaded plugins
    IO.puts("Loaded plugins:")

    Enum.each(plugins, fn
      %{name: name, path: path} -> IO.puts("  #{name} (#{path})")
      name when is_binary(name) -> IO.puts("  #{name}")
    end)

    # Check available commands (plugins add namespaced commands)
    IO.puts("Available commands:")
    Enum.each(commands, &IO.puts("  #{&1}"))

  _ ->
    :ok
end)

The ClaudeCode.Message.SystemMessage struct includes these plugin-related fields:

Field	Type	Description
`plugins`	list of maps or strings	Loaded plugins, each with `:name` and `:path` keys
`slash_commands`	list of strings	All available slash commands, including plugin-namespaced ones
`skills`	list of strings	Available skills, including those from plugins
`tools`	list of strings	Available tools, including those from plugin MCP servers

Using plugin commands

Commands from plugins are automatically namespaced with the plugin name to avoid conflicts. The format is plugin-name:command-name.

alias ClaudeCode.Message.ResultMessage

# Invoke a plugin command by using the namespaced format
result =
  session
  |> ClaudeCode.stream("/my-plugin:greet",
    plugins: [%{type: :local, path: "./my-plugin"}]
  )
  |> ClaudeCode.Stream.final_result()

%ResultMessage{result: text} = result

Note: If you installed a plugin via the CLI (for example, /plugin install my-plugin@marketplace), you can still use it in the SDK by providing its installation path. Check ~/.claude/plugins/ for CLI-installed plugins.

Complete example

Here is a full example demonstrating plugin loading and usage:

alias ClaudeCode.Message.{SystemMessage, ResultMessage}

plugin_path = Path.join([__DIR__, "plugins", "my-plugin"])

{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [%{type: :local, path: plugin_path}],
  max_turns: 3
)

session
|> ClaudeCode.stream("What custom commands do you have available?")
|> Enum.each(fn
  %SystemMessage{subtype: :init, plugins: plugins, slash_commands: commands} ->
    IO.puts("Loaded plugins: #{inspect(plugins)}")
    IO.puts("Available commands: #{inspect(commands)}")

  %ResultMessage{result: text} ->
    IO.puts("Result: #{text}")

  _ ->
    :ok
end)

Plugin structure reference

A plugin directory must contain a .claude-plugin/plugin.json manifest file. It can optionally include:

my-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json          # Required: plugin manifest
├── commands/                 # Custom slash commands
│   └── custom-cmd.md
├── agents/                   # Custom agents
│   └── specialist.md
├── skills/                   # Agent Skills
│   └── my-skill/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── hooks/                    # Event handlers
│   └── hooks.json
├── .mcp.json                # MCP server definitions
└── .lsp.json                # LSP server configurations

Warning: Do not put commands/, agents/, skills/, or hooks/ inside the .claude-plugin/ directory. Only plugin.json goes inside .claude-plugin/. All other directories must be at the plugin root level.

For detailed information on creating plugins, see:

Plugins -- Complete plugin development guide
Plugins reference -- Technical specifications and schemas

Common use cases

Development and testing

Load plugins during development without installing them globally:

{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [%{type: :local, path: "./dev-plugins/my-plugin"}]
)

Project-specific extensions

Include plugins in your project repository for team-wide consistency:

{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [%{type: :local, path: "./project-plugins/team-workflows"}]
)

Multiple plugin sources

Combine plugins from different locations:

{:ok, session} = ClaudeCode.start_link(
  plugins: [
    %{type: :local, path: "./local-plugin"},
    %{type: :local, path: Path.expand("~/.claude/custom-plugins/shared-plugin")}
  ]
)

Troubleshooting

Plugin not loading

If your plugin does not appear in the init message:

Check the path -- Ensure the path points to the plugin root directory (the one containing .claude-plugin/)
Validate plugin.json -- Ensure the manifest file has valid JSON syntax
Check file permissions -- Ensure the plugin directory and its contents are readable

Commands not available

If plugin commands are not working:

Use the namespace -- Plugin commands require the plugin-name:command-name format
Check the init message -- Verify the command appears in slash_commands with the correct namespace prefix
Validate command files -- Ensure command markdown files are in the commands/ directory within the plugin

Path resolution issues

If relative paths do not resolve correctly:

Check the working directory -- Relative paths are resolved from the process working directory (or the :cwd option if set)
Use absolute paths -- For reliability, construct absolute paths with Path.join/2 or Path.expand/1
Normalize paths -- Use Path.expand/1 to resolve ~ and other path shortcuts