plugin install

Put the plugin in the current directory into the local plugin directory of every runtime its canonical plugin.json declares, so a runtime loads it before it is published anywhere. plugin uninstall takes it back out.

This is local development only. Installing a published plugin by name is the runtime’s own job — /plugin marketplace add in Claude Code, codex plugin add, copilot plugin install.

Usage

universal-plugin plugin install [options]
universal-plugin plugin uninstall [options]

Options

Flag	Description
--vendor <id>	Install only the named vendor; repeatable
--link	Symlink the plugin root, failing a vendor that will not load one
--copy	Copy the plugin root instead of linking it
--force	Replace a destination this plugin does not own
--list	Print the resolved targets and destinations without writing
--root <path>	Plugin root directory (default: current directory)
--format json	Output as JSON

uninstall takes --vendor, --force, --list, --root, and --format.

Where each runtime looks

Two runtimes scan a directory for plugins under development. The other two do not, and are reported as unsupported rather than failed — reach them through a repository-local marketplace.

Vendor	Destination	Symlink	After installing
claude-code	~/.claude/skills/<name>	followed	restart Claude Code; it loads as <name>@skills-dir
cursor	~/.cursor/plugins/local/<name>	rejected, so a copy is used	run Developer: Reload Window
codex	none	—	codex plugin marketplace add ., then codex plugin add
copilot-cli	none	—	copilot plugin marketplace add ., then copilot plugin install

<name> is the canonical manifest’s name. These paths come from the vendor registry, so a machine with a runtime configured elsewhere can override them in ~/.agents/universal-plugin-vendors.json without waiting for a release.

Link or copy

A link is live: the next edit is installed already, which is what you want while developing. A copy is a snapshot of the working tree without .git and node_modules, which is what you want to see roughly what a consumer receives — and it is the only form Cursor loads, because its scan rejects a symlink pointing outside its own directory.

The default picks per vendor, and the result row names the mode each vendor got. --copy forces a snapshot everywhere. --link forces a link and fails a vendor that will not load one, rather than quietly copying when you asked for a live link.

What it refuses

• A destination this plugin does not own — another plugin’s directory, or a symlink pointing somewhere else. --force replaces it. An install of this plugin is always replaced, so re-running never stacks.
• A vendor whose derived manifest is missing — run plugin build first. Installing before building hands the runtime a half-built plugin, and the only symptom is silence.
• A vendor the manifest does not declare — install reads plugin build’s target set and never widens it.

uninstall applies the same ownership test, and reports a destination that was never installed as missing rather than failing, so it is safe to run twice.

Examples

# Install into every runtime the manifest declares
universal-plugin plugin install

# See where it would go, without writing
universal-plugin plugin install --list

# One runtime, as a snapshot
universal-plugin plugin install --vendor cursor --copy

# Remove it again
universal-plugin plugin uninstall

Sources for the per-runtime facts above, including which were run end to end and which were read out of a shipped build, are in .research/local-marketplaces/.