How to Discover Community Plugins by Category in Claude Code

Use the claude plugin marketplace list --category <slug> command to filter the .claude-plugin/marketplace.json manifest, or query the JSON directly with jq to find plugins grouped by domain such as productivity, development, or testing.

The anthropics/claude-plugins-community repository hosts the official marketplace for Claude Code extensions. Discovering community plugins by category enables you to quickly find tools tailored to specific workflows like development, testing, or finance without manually scanning the entire registry.

Understanding the Marketplace Manifest

The community plugin marketplace is governed by a single JSON file located at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json. This file serves as the source of truth for all community plugins and is regenerated nightly from Anthropic's internal review pipeline.

Each entry in the plugins array contains metadata including name, description, source, and an optional category field. The category field groups plugins into logical domains using slugs like productivity, development, testing, finance, design, and security.

Because the manifest is public and machine-readable, you can filter it using the Claude Code CLI or standard shell utilities.

Using the Claude Code CLI to Filter by Category

The Claude Code CLI provides native support for category-based discovery after you register the marketplace repository.

First, add the community marketplace:

claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community

Then filter plugins by category using the --category flag:

claude plugin marketplace list --category productivity

The CLI loads .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, filters the array for entries where category equals the requested slug, and renders a formatted table displaying the name and description of each matching plugin.

Querying Categories with Command-Line Tools

If you prefer shell-based workflows or need to integrate plugin discovery into scripts, you can query the raw JSON directly without invoking the CLI.

Using jq for Precise Filtering

The jq utility allows precise extraction of plugins by category. Run this from the root of a cloned repository:

jq -r '.plugins[] | select(.category == "testing") |
       "\(.name)\t\(.description)"' \
   .claude-plugin/marketplace.json

This command selects all plugins where the category equals testing and outputs the name and description separated by tabs.

Using grep for Quick Inspection

For rapid terminal searches without parsing JSON structure:

grep -i '"category": "development"' -A2 .claude-plugin/marketplace.json | head -n 20

This prints the matching line plus the following two lines, typically revealing the plugin name and description.

Available Plugin Categories

The marketplace organizes plugins into the following functional categories. Each slug corresponds to the value used with the --category flag:

• productivity: Ad management and marketing automation tools (e.g., adspirer-ads-agent, adup-ai-marketing-agent)
• development: Software engineering and code generation utilities (e.g., agentic-commerce, agent-discovery)
• testing: Quality assurance and visual regression frameworks (e.g., meticulous, agenteqa)
• finance: Accounting and financial analysis tools (e.g., accountsos, 42crunch-api-security-testing)
• design: Visual design and creative automation (e.g., quickdesign, adaptlypost)
• security: Guardrails and security testing agents (e.g., agentic-security, agent-guardrails-template)

You can view the complete categorized list by opening the manifest directly in your browser at the GitHub repository URL.

Key Files and Validation

Understanding these source files ensures you can verify category data and troubleshoot discovery issues:

• .claude-plugin/marketplace.json: The canonical registry containing all plugin metadata and category assignments. This file is read by the CLI during list operations.
• README.md: Documents the marketplace addition workflow and CLI usage patterns.
• .github/actions/validate-plugins/scripts/20-validate-cli-marketplace.sh: Contains the validation logic that confirms the CLI trusts the manifest structure during automated checks.

Summary

• The .claude-plugin/marketplace.json file in anthropics/claude-plugins-community serves as the single source of truth for all community plugins.
• Use claude plugin marketplace list --category <slug> to filter plugins natively through the Claude Code CLI.
• Query the JSON directly with jq or grep for shell-based automation and custom filtering.
• Categories include productivity, development, testing, finance, design, and security, with each plugin optionally tagged to one domain.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add the community marketplace to Claude Code?

Run claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community to register the repository. Once added, the CLI can access the .claude-plugin/marketplace.json manifest and execute category-filtered queries using the list subcommand.

What categories are available in the community plugin marketplace?

Available category slugs include productivity, development, testing, finance, design, and security. Each plugin entry in marketplace.json optionally specifies one category to indicate its primary functional domain.

Can I browse plugins by category without installing the Claude Code CLI?

Yes. Because the marketplace is a public JSON file, you can view .claude-plugin/marketplace.json directly in the GitHub web interface and search for "category": to see grouped entries. You can also download the file and use standard JSON tools like jq or text search utilities like grep to filter by category locally.

How is the marketplace.json file maintained?

The file is generated nightly from Anthropic's internal review pipeline as documented in the repository README. The .github/actions/validate-plugins/scripts/20-validate-cli-marketplace.sh script ensures structural integrity and validates entries against the CLI's expected schema before publication.

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