Advanced concepts · Chapter 1 of 6

Plugins

One install that teaches your agent a whole tool.

Take one thing from this whole section and make it plugins. They're the biggest capability jump for the least effort: one install and your agent suddenly knows a tool inside-out, with no configuration and no expertise required from you.

A plugin is a pre-packed bundle. Someone who knows a tool deeply, often the company that makes it, boxes up everything an agent needs to work with it well: skills, rules, connections, helpers. You install the box; your agent inherits the knowledge inside.

Concretely: you start using Supabase. Rather than teaching your agent Supabase conventions and hand-wiring the connection, you install the Supabase plugin. It arrives already knowing the best practices, connection included. Setup skipped, straight to building.

So make it a reflex. Adopting a new tool or service? Check for a plugin first.

What's in the box? A short manifest names the plugin, and the rest is the pieces that get their own chapters below:

Skills

Saved instructions that teach the agent how to do specific work with this tool.

Rules

Always-on guidance the agent follows on every request.

MCP setup

The wiring that lets the agent reach the outside service directly.

Subagents

Specialist helpers that take over focused jobs.

Hooks

Actions that fire automatically at set moments.

Helper files

Whatever else makes it feel like one-click setup.

Where to browse: start with the official directories, the Claude plugin directory and the Cursor marketplace. Installing from Claude Code is a command away:

Claude Code

/plugin

One caution from experience: plugins are seasoning, not soup. Every install adds standing weight to your setup. They can clash, they eat tokens (which means cost and speed), and a cluttered agent is a worse agent. Install what you're actively using; uninstall what you've abandoned.

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