Skill Publish

Publish Claude Code plugins and standalone Agent Skills with proper versioning, changelog management, and git workflow.

Determine Publish Type

Before starting, identify the publish type based on project structure:

Indicator	Type
`.claude-plugin/plugin.json` exists	Claude Code Plugin
Standalone `SKILL.md` with no plugin manifest	Standalone Agent Skill

Claude Code plugins publish by pushing to GitHub — the marketplace picks up the latest commit on the default branch automatically. No registry upload or OTP is needed.

Standalone Agent Skills follow the agentskills.io specification and distribute as directories containing SKILL.md.

Claude Code Plugin Workflow

1. Check Current State

# Read current version from manifest
cat .claude-plugin/plugin.json | grep '"version"'

# Check git is clean and up to date
git fetch origin && git status

# Review commits since last version bump
git log --oneline $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null || echo HEAD~10)..HEAD

2. Bump Version in plugin.json

Edit .claude-plugin/plugin.json to increment the version field. For early-stage plugins (0.x.x or 1.0.x), bump the patch version unless the user requests otherwise:

0.1.6 → 0.1.7
1.0.23 → 1.0.24

3. Update CHANGELOG.md

If a changelog exists, add an entry following the existing format:

## [X.X.X] - YYYY-MM-DD

### Added
- New features

### Changed
- Changes to existing functionality

### Fixed
- Bug fixes

Summarize commits since the last release into appropriate categories.

4. Validate Plugin Structure

Before publishing, verify the plugin is well-formed:

.claude-plugin/plugin.json has required name field
Component directories (commands/, agents/, skills/, hooks/) contain valid files
Skills have SKILL.md with valid YAML frontmatter (name + description)
Agents and commands have .md files with YAML frontmatter
Referenced files and scripts exist

5. Commit and Push

Critical: Pushing to the default branch IS publishing. The Claude Code plugin marketplace automatically picks up the latest commit.

git add .claude-plugin/plugin.json CHANGELOG.md
# Also stage any changed skill/agent/command files
git add -A
git commit -m "Release vX.X.X"
git push origin <default-branch>

6. Verify Publication

After pushing, verify the plugin update is available:

CLAUDECODE= claude plugin update <plugin-name>@<publisher>

The CLAUDECODE= prefix is required to avoid nested session errors when running from within Claude Code.

Note: The marketplace may take a few minutes to reflect the new version.

7. Update Downstream References

If the plugin version is tracked elsewhere (e.g., a marketplace page, documentation, or lib/plugins.ts), update those references to match the new version.

Standalone Agent Skill Workflow

For skills not bundled in a Claude Code plugin, follow the agentskills.io specification.

1. Validate SKILL.md

Verify frontmatter meets the spec. For details, consult references/agentskills-spec.md.

Required fields:

name: 1-64 chars, lowercase alphanumeric + hyphens, must match directory name
description: 1-1024 chars, describes what and when

Optional fields:

license, compatibility, metadata, allowed-tools

2. Validate Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md          # Required
├── scripts/          # Optional executables
├── references/       # Optional docs loaded on demand
└── assets/           # Optional static resources

3. Version via Metadata

Track version in the frontmatter metadata field:

metadata:
  author: org-name
  version: "1.1.0"

4. Distribute

Standalone skills distribute as directories. Common methods:

Git repository (push to GitHub)
Archive (zip the skill directory)
Package registry (if applicable)

Common Issues

Plugin Not Updating

If claude plugin update does not pick up changes:

Verify the push landed on the default branch (usually main or master)
Check that .claude-plugin/plugin.json is valid JSON
Wait a few minutes for marketplace propagation

Version Already Exists

If the version string was already used in a previous commit, bump again to the next patch before pushing.

Nested Session Error

Always prefix CLI commands with CLAUDECODE= when running from within an active Claude Code session to avoid the "nested session" error.

Additional Resources

Reference Files

references/agentskills-spec.md — Complete agentskills.io specification summary for standalone skills

skill-publish