Sharing Skills: Git, Plugins, and Managed Settings
Why Share Skills
A skill only you use is helpful; the same skill shared across your team standardizes how everyone works and creates a consistent experience. There are three distribution methods, each fitting a different audience and level of enforcement — from a quick git commit to org-wide mandates.
Three distribution methods scaling from team (git) to community (plugins) to mandatory org-wide (managed settings).
Method 1: Commit to Your Repository
The simplest sharing method is committing skills directly to your repo. Place them in .claude/skills, and anyone who clones the repo gets them automatically — no extra installation. When you push updates, everyone gets them on the next pull, just like any other code change.
- •Best for: team coding standards, project-specific workflows, skills that reference your codebase structure.
- •The whole .claude directory (agents, hooks, skills, settings) is version-controlled and shared through normal git workflows.
- •Reminder: project skills require accepting the workspace trust dialog before their allowed-tools take effect — review them before trusting a repo.
Git is the default for teams
For most teams, committing to .claude/skills is all you need. It requires no marketplace, no admin, and updates flow through the same pull requests as your code — keeping skills reviewed and versioned alongside everything else.
Methods 2 & 3: Plugins and Managed Settings
For broader reach, plugins package skills (in a skills/ directory) for distribution through a marketplace, so anyone can discover and install them — best when your skills aren't project-specific and benefit the wider community. For mandatory standards, administrators deploy skills org-wide through managed settings at the highest priority.
| Method | Reach | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Git commit | Your team (the repo) | Team standards, codebase-specific skills |
| Plugin + marketplace | Anyone who installs it | Reusable skills useful beyond your team |
| Managed settings | The whole organization | Mandatory standards, security & compliance |
The keyword for managed settings is 'must' — use it for what every member of the org is required to follow.
"strictKnownMarketplaces": [
{ "source": "github", "repo": "acme-corp/approved-plugins" },
{ "source": "npm", "package": "@acme-corp/compliance-plugins" }
]Choosing a Method
Pick by audience and how strongly the skill must be enforced. Team-only and codebase-specific → git. Generally useful and community-facing → a plugin. Required for everyone with no opt-out → managed settings (which override personal, project, and plugin skills of the same name).
- 1.Just my team, tied to this codebase → commit to .claude/skills.
- 2.Useful to many people / other repos → package as a plugin and publish to a marketplace.
- 3.Must apply to the entire org (security, compliance) → deploy via managed settings.
- 4.Restrict plugin sources for safety → strictKnownMarketplaces in managed settings.
Next
Sharing covers people. The last piece is making skills work with delegated work — wiring skills into custom subagents, which don't inherit them automatically.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Sharing turns a personal skill into a team or org standard — three methods fit three audiences and enforcement levels.
- ✓Git commit (easiest): put skills in .claude/skills and anyone who clones the repo gets them; updates flow through normal git pulls.
- ✓Plugins: package skills in a skills/ directory and distribute via a marketplace — best for skills useful beyond your team.
- ✓Managed settings: admins deploy skills org-wide at the highest priority — for mandatory standards, security, and compliance ('must').
- ✓Managed enterprise skills override personal, project, and plugin skills with the same name; strictKnownMarketplaces can restrict plugin sources.
- ✓Project skills require accepting the workspace trust dialog before their allowed-tools take effect — review skills before trusting a repo.
Check Your Understanding
Test what you learned in this lesson.
Q1.What is the simplest way to share skills with your team?
Q2.Which distribution method is best for skills useful to the broader community beyond your team?
Q3.When should an organization use managed settings to deploy skills?
Q4.What does strictKnownMarketplaces in managed settings control?
Practice This Lesson