[FEATURE] Add CLI subcommands for programmatic plugin management

[PaulRBerg]

Problem

There's no way to update plugins or refresh marketplaces programmatically via the claude CLI. Currently, plugin management is only available through interactive slash commands (/plugin), which makes it difficult to:

• Script plugin updates in CI/CD or automation workflows
• Refresh marketplace caches without entering an interactive session
• Update plugins across multiple machines programmatically
• Integrate plugin management into developer tooling

Proposed solution

Add CLI subcommands for non-interactive plugin management:

# Marketplace operations
claude plugin marketplace list                    # List configured marketplaces
claude plugin marketplace add <url>               # Add a marketplace
claude plugin marketplace remove <name>           # Remove a marketplace
claude plugin marketplace refresh [name]          # Refresh marketplace cache (all or specific)

# Plugin operations
claude plugin list                                # List installed plugins
claude plugin install <name>[@marketplace]        # Install a plugin
claude plugin update [name]                       # Update plugin(s) - all if no name given
claude plugin remove <name>                       # Uninstall a plugin

All commands should:

• Exit with appropriate status codes (0 success, non-zero failure)
• Support --json flag for machine-readable output
• Work without TTY (for scripting)

Alternatives considered

1. Third-party tools: npx claude-plugins exists but is community-maintained and may not cover all use cases
2. Direct file manipulation: Editing ~/.claude/marketplaces.json directly is fragile and unsupported
3. Piping commands: echo "/plugin ..." | claude is hacky and unreliable

Priority

Medium

Category

CLI commands and flags

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [FEATURE] Headless/programmatic plugin installation #12840
2. claude plugin update-all #11676
3. [FEATURE] List subcommand for plugins #11740

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[PaulRBerg]

Closing as duplicate of #11676

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.