What
A plugin marketplace is a catalog that Claude Code installs plugins from. Claude Code already refused marketplace names that imitate an official Anthropic or Claude marketplace, but the refusal surfaced as a generic "Failed to load marketplace" error, and the cache-miss message suggested running /reload-plugins. Now the refusal is reported as its own case:
- The error reads: Claude Code refuses the marketplace name "": it looks like one of Anthropic's own. Reloading won't help. Other load failures keep the generic "Failed to load marketplace" text.
- The message explains how to remove the marketplace: a
plugin marketplace removecommand, or /plugin then Marketplaces. - If the marketplace is declared in a settings file, it adds "it is declared in a settings file: to keep it, rename it there". Otherwise it adds "if its maintainer renames it, update it instead".
- It warns that removing a marketplace uninstalls its plugins and deletes their saved data.
- The failure is recorded with
nameRefused, plusnameRefusedDeclaredInSettingswhen the marketplace came from settings. The reader for cached marketplaces tracks refusals the same way. - Load failures flagged
nameRefusedare excluded by the check that decides whether a plugin error is shown or counted, as untrusted reserved names already were.
Why
A marketplace posing as an Anthropic one will not load however many times you reload. The message now says so and tells you what to do instead.
Names in the bundle/plugin
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added since
A small documentation edit on Set up a skills repository Claude can update touched a line naming /plugin after this was published.
To upload instead, in [**Organization settings > Plugins & skills**](https://claude.ai/admin-settings/skills?tab=inventory), click **Add**, choose **Upload a plugin**, and upload a `.zip` or `.plugin` archive of up to 200 MB. The archive h…claude-tag/admins/skills-repo see the edit
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /plugin, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.
| `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` | Plugin manifest (name, description, version). Required unless a top-level `SKILL.md` serves as the manifest; see the note below this table. A directory with neither is ignored. |third-party/claude-desktop/extensions see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /plugin, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.