[BUG] No conceivable way to add a URL-Based Marketplace

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude code documentation mentions URL-based marketplaces in a few places, like here: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings

{ "source": "url", "url": "https://plugins.example.com/marketplace.json" }

when serving marketplace jsons from a static web server, a command like this succeeds.

Adding marketplace...
Downloading marketplace from https://plugins.example.com/marketplace.json
Validating marketplace data
Saving marketplace to cache
✔ Successfully added marketplace: example

But installing plugins from the marketplace fails - as what was set up in ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces for example was a file containing the marketplace.json, rather than a folder structure of plugins.

I've also tried changing the plugin sources in marketplace.json from being relative paths to being absolute URLs. unfortunately this causes validation failures.

Due to issues with private repo marketplaces like #9756, I'm looking for alternative ways to distribute private marketplaces.
Thank you!

What Should Happen?

There should be a way for URL-based marketplaces to work, and ideally a bit more documentation on them

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

See above

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.2 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_