Add install URI / deep link support for agent plugin marketplaces

[jesselane-pnnl]

VS Code supports custom agent plugin marketplaces, but adding one still requires manual configuration or command-line steps.

I’d like to request a supported install URI / deep-link flow for agent plugin marketplaces, similar to the low-friction MCP install experience. We recently used the vscode:mcp/install flow successfully, and that kind of experience would be very useful for agent plugin marketplaces as well.

The goal is not silent install. A confirmation flow is fine. The key part is being able to give a user a single link or button that:

1. opens VS Code
2. shows a confirmation dialog for the marketplace being added
3. displays basic marketplace metadata such as name, owner, description, and repo URL
4. adds the marketplace to the user’s configured chat.plugins.marketplaces list after confirmation

This would make it much easier for teams and organizations to distribute curated internal marketplaces for plugins, skills, agents, and MCP-backed integrations without asking users to hand-edit settings.

Related prior art:

• Discover and run MCP servers #242864
• MCP: add CLI command for installing MCP servers into settings #243224

This request is for similar install ergonomics, but for agent plugin marketplaces rather than MCP servers.

[mrybson]

This would be very useful. Also enabling them with.github-private for entire org would be great

[pl4nty]

URIs are supported, we use them: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_113#_url-handlers-for-plugin-installation