Plugin Anatomy

Plugin anatomy

A crickets plugin is a functional group of primitives — skills, agents, commands, hooks — authored once under src/<group>/ and generated into a native host plugin at dist/<host>/plugins/<group>/, which the host's plugin manager installs. The group folder is the plugin, and its name is the plugin slug. crickets doesn't redefine the host plugin format — it generates into it; this page is the crickets-side anatomy: what's in a plugin and how plugins relate. For why it's built this way see the v3 design; for host coverage see Compatibility.

⚡ Quick Reference

A generated plugin — dist/<host>/plugins/<group>/:

.claude-plugin/plugin.json   # the plugin manifest   (Antigravity: plugin.json at the plugin root)
skills/<name>/SKILL.md       # skills
agents/<name>.md             # agents
commands/<name>.md           # commands
hooks/hooks.json             # the hook manifest      (Antigravity: hooks.json at the plugin root)
hooks/<name>/                #   per hook: <name>.sh + <name>.ps1 + hook.md + settings-fragment-{bash,pwsh}.json
rules/<name>.md              # Antigravity only — emitted from snippets (Claude has no instruction-file primitive)
scripts/<name>               # group-level helper scripts, copied verbatim (both hosts)

Customization types covers what each kind is; Per-host paths the exact path per host.

The group manifest

Each src/<group>/group.yaml describes the plugin — what per-primitive frontmatter does for a single primitive:

Field	Meaning
name · description · category	marketplace display
standalone	independently installable (⟺ requires: [])
requires	other groups this plugin hard-depends on
enhances	groups this plugin augments when both are installed (soft)
capabilities	named capabilities that other plugins' enhances can target

See Manifest schema for the full contract + validation rules.

How plugins compose

Three relationships, in increasing coupling:

• standalone — works on its own, depends on nothing (requires: []).
• requires — a hard dependency. On Claude Code the manifest's native dependencies auto-installs the base; on Antigravity the plugin ships thin and the docs say "install the base first."
• enhances — soft: the plugin works alone and augments a target when both are installed, engaged by a capability probe rather than a hard link.

The six shipped plugins:

Plugin	Standalone?	Relation to the base
developer-workflows	✅ (base)	declares the capabilities others target (setup … documentation)
developer-safety	✅	enhances developer-workflows
code-review	✅	enhances developer-workflows' review
wiki-maintenance	✅	enhances developer-workflows' documentation
pii	✅	independent
github-ci	❌ requires developer-workflows	hard dependency

From source to installed

src/<group>/ → python3 scripts/generate.py build → committed dist/<host>/plugins/<group>/ → the host installs the whole plugin. The generated dist/ is committed, so the marketplace serves static files and a CI gate proves it stays in sync with src/. Edit and dogfood via Modify a plugin; install via Install crickets plugins.

Related

• Customization types — the primitive kinds a plugin holds.
• Per-host paths — where each kind lands, per host.
• Manifest schema — group.yaml + primitive frontmatter.
• Modify a plugin — edit src/, regenerate, dogfood.
• Crickets v3.0 — native plugins — the design + rationale.