Complete Guide to the Categories of Plugins Available in the Claude Marketplace

The Claude Marketplace organizes its community-contributed plugins into 13 distinct functional categories, ranging from development and security to finance and productivity, as defined in the repository's marketplace.json manifest.

The Claude Marketplace, maintained within the anthropics/claude-plugins-community repository, provides a curated ecosystem of extensions that enhance Claude Code's capabilities. Each plugin entry in the catalog includes a mandatory "category" field that determines its classification and discoverability. Understanding the categories of plugins available in the Claude marketplace enables developers to efficiently browse, filter, and install tools that match their specific workflow requirements.

Where Plugin Categories Are Defined

The authoritative source for all category assignments resides in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json at the repository root. This master manifest file contains the complete plugin registry, with each entry specifying its functional category alongside metadata such as the plugin name, description, and installation details.

Complete List of Claude Marketplace Plugin Categories

Analysis of the marketplace.json file reveals 13 distinct category values used to organize the plugin ecosystem. Each category targets specific workflow needs, from software engineering to business operations.

• testing: Quality assurance and validation tools, such as meticulous for visual regression testing (line 105)
• productivity: Workflow automation and efficiency platforms, including adup-ai-marketing-agent for marketing stack integration (line 368)
• development: Engineering and coding assistance plugins like 10x-team, which provides "an entire engineering team as Claude Code skills" (line 695)
• location: Geospatial and location-aware services (line 1273)
• finance: Financial management and accounting systems, demonstrated by accountsos offering "AI-native UK accounting" (line 6502)
• monitoring: Observability and system tracking utilities (line 6591)
• deployment: Release management and infrastructure deployment tools (line 7041)
• design: Creative and visual design assistance (line 8232)
• database: Data storage and database management interfaces (line 10041)
• security: Authentication and security infrastructure, including the auth0 plugin for "a single unified Auth0 skill" (line 20808)
• learning: Educational and skill development tools (line 22801)
• automation: General-purpose automation and scripting capabilities (line 23201)
• Developer Tools: Specialized utilities for software development workflows (line 12397)

How to Filter Plugins by Category

The Claude CLI provides native filtering capabilities that leverage the category metadata stored in marketplace.json. Use these commands to discover and manage plugins within specific categories:

# List all plugins in the "development" category

claude plugin list --category development

# Install a plugin that belongs to the "productivity" category

claude plugin install adup-ai-marketing-agent@claude-community

# Search for plugins that are tagged as "security"

claude plugin search --category security "auth0"

# Show a summary of plugins grouped by category

claude plugin stats --group-by category

These commands read the same marketplace JSON manifest that defines the plugin categories, ensuring consistency between the repository source and your local Claude Code environment.

Summary

• The Claude Marketplace uses 13 standardized categories defined in .claude-plugin/marketplace.json to organize community plugins
• Categories span technical domains like development, database, and security alongside business functions such as finance, productivity, and design
• Each plugin entry in the marketplace includes a mandatory "category" field that determines its classification and CLI discoverability
• The Claude CLI supports category-based filtering via --category flags for list, install, search, and stats commands
• Specific line references in marketplace.json (such as line 20808 for the auth0 security plugin) provide deterministic locations for each plugin definition

Frequently Asked Questions

How many categories of plugins are available in the Claude Marketplace?

The marketplace currently recognizes 13 distinct plugin categories. These include testing, productivity, development, location, finance, monitoring, deployment, design, database, security, learning, automation, and Developer Tools. The marketplace.json file in the anthropics/claude-plugins-community repository serves as the single source of truth for these classifications.

How do I find plugins in the "development" category specifically?

Use the Claude CLI's category filter: claude plugin list --category development. This command queries the .claude-plugin/marketplace.json file and returns only plugins tagged with the development category, such as the 10x-team plugin found at line 695 of the manifest.

Are plugin categories case-sensitive in the Claude Marketplace CLI?

The source data in marketplace.json shows casing variations—most categories use lowercase (e.g., development, security), while "Developer Tools" uses title case. When using CLI filters, refer to the exact spelling as defined in the marketplace manifest to ensure accurate query results.

Can I submit a plugin to a custom category in the Claude Marketplace?

Currently, contributors must select from the existing 13 categories defined in the repository's marketplace.json structure. New category additions require updates to the master manifest by the Anthropic maintainers. When submitting plugins via the anthropics/claude-plugins-community repository, align your submission with the established taxonomy to ensure proper classification and discoverability.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "instagit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "instagit@latest"]
    }
  }
}