claude plugin sync — auto-install plugins from settings.json (like npm install)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Currently settings.json declares which plugins are enabled for a project, but there is no command to automatically install missing plugins from that file. When a new developer clones a repo or a teammate adds a new plugin to settings.json,
each developer must manually identify and install each plugin individually using claude plugin install <name>.

This creates an onboarding friction point — developers either miss plugins silently or have to read settings.json and run installs by hand.

Proposed solution:

Add a claude plugin sync command (or equivalent) that:

• Reads settings.json (project or user level)
• Compares declared plugins against locally installed ones
• Installs anything missing automatically

This mirrors the established npm install / package.json pattern that developers already understand intuitively.

Why this matters:

Teams sharing Claude Code configs via version-controlled settings.json have no automated way to ensure every developer has the same plugins installed. This undermines the value of committing settings.json in the first place.

Proposed Solution

Current workaround:

Manually documenting required installs in CLAUDE.md or README.md — fragile and easy to forget to update.

Expected behavior:
New developer clones repo, settings.json already has plugins declared
claude plugin sync

Output:
installing dev-tools@realpage-marketplace... done
installing commit-commands@claude-plugins-official... done
All plugins up to date.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Critical - Blocking my work

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

_No response_