[FEATURE] Support default-enabled flag for plugins in marketplace.json

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

(Re-opening https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/17117)

We are using Claude Code in our development team extensively and make a great deal of use of skills. We have a company wide marketplace of skills that we find useful as an organisation in our work.

Some skills are mature and well tested, others are more experimental and earlier in their lifecycle. Each developer has ended up with a variety of local hacks and configuration changes in their claude skills setup which leads to inconsistency of approach and benefit from these skills.

We would like to be able to define at the marketplace level which skills (each in their own plugin) would be enabled when the marketplace is installed. This would mean that by simply adding the marketplace developers would have a standard base configuration with the ability to opt into the experimental skill plugins.

Currently:

1. Install marketplace → plugins become available
2. Enable plugins separately via settings.json or claude plugin enable

This splits configuration across two places:

• marketplace.json defines what's available
• settings.json (project/user/managed) defines what's enabled

For teams, this means either:

• Requiring manual setup steps per developer
• Committing enabledPlugins to every project's .claude/settings.json
• Deploying managed settings via IT

Proposed Solution

Add an optional defaultEnabled field to plugin entries in marketplace.json:

{
  "name": "company-tools",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "security-checker",
      "source": "./plugins/security-checker",
      "description": "Required security scanning",
      "defaultEnabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "code-standards",
      "source": "./plugins/code-standards",
      "description": "Team code style enforcement",
      "defaultEnabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "experimental-ai",
      "source": "./plugins/experimental-ai",
      "description": "Optional experimental features",
      "defaultEnabled": false
    }
  ]
}

Behavior:

• defaultEnabled: true → plugin is enabled when marketplace is installed
• defaultEnabled: false or omitted → plugin is available but not enabled (current behavior)
• Users can still override in their local settings
• Repositories can still override in their local settings

Alternative Solutions

Project settings.json -> must configure per repo
User settings.json -> Manual setup per developer
Managed settings -> Could work, requires IT infrastructure changes outside of development cycle
Onboarding script -> Extra tooling, could drift

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

A development team wants to distribute Claude Code plugins where:

• Security and code standards plugins are mandatory for all developers
• Experimental or specialized plugins are available but opt-in

This makes the marketplace self-describing - one file defines both the catalog and sensible defaults for team distribution.

Additional Context

• Re-opening https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/17117
• #10265 - Proposes auto-update flag for keeping installed plugins current. Together with this feature, teams would have a complete plugin distribution lifecycle: default-enabled plugins on install + automatic updates thereafter.