Create Claude Code Plugin for Skills Distribution

[sbroenne]

Summary

Create a Claude Code plugin to enable one-click installation of Excel MCP Server skills for Claude Code users.

Background

Claude Desktop and Claude Code are different products with different extension mechanisms:

Product	Type	Skills Support	Extension Format
Claude Desktop	GUI chat app	❌ No	MCPB bundles
Claude Code	CLI coding agent	✅ Yes	Plugins (.claude-plugin/)

Currently, Claude Code users must manually install skills via:
\\�ash
npx add-skill sbroenne/mcp-server-excel -a claude-code
\\

Proposal

Create a Claude Code plugin that packages our Agent Skills for easier distribution:

\
excel-mcp-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/
│ └── plugin.json # Plugin manifest
├── skills/
│ ├── excel-mcp/
│ │ └── SKILL.md # MCP Server skill
│ └── excel-cli/
│ └── SKILL.md # CLI skill
└── .mcp.json # Optional: MCP server config
\\

Benefits

• One-click install: Users can install via marketplace or --plugin-dir\
• Auto-updates: Plugins can update automatically
• Namespace: Skills are namespaced to avoid conflicts (/excel-mcp:skill-name)

References

• Claude Code Plugins Documentation
• Agent Skills Specification
• Current Skills

Related

• [BUG] MCPB Extension Preview Fails: "Unrecognized key(s) in object: 'skills' #389 - MCPB manifest skills key not recognized (Claude Desktop doesn't support skills)
• fix(mcpb): Remove unsupported 'skills' key from manifest #392 - Remove skills key from MCPB manifest