Agent Plugins

August 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

Agent Plugins are portable packages that bundle Agent Skills and MCP servers under a root plugin.json manifest, following the Agent Plugins spec. Install one and its skills and MCP servers become available to VT Code immediately.

For the full reference — plugin layout, manifest fields, MCP transports, and security behavior — see the Agent Plugins Guide.

What a plugin gives you

A plugin directory looks like:

my-plugin/
├── plugin.json              # required: $schema + name
├── skills/
│   └── my-skill/
│       └── SKILL.md         # Agent Skill (name must match its folder)
└── mcp.json                 # optional MCP servers

Skills placed under skills/*/SKILL.md are discovered from <workspace>/.agents/plugins and appear alongside your regular skills.
MCP servers declared in mcp.json are started at session startup and exposed as <plugin>.<server> providers.

Install a plugin

vtcode plugins add https://github.com/example/my-plugin

add accepts a git URL or a local directory, clones/copies it into ~/.agents/plugins/<name>, and validates it. Pass --name to override the directory name:

vtcode plugins add https://github.com/example/my-plugin --name my-tools

add installs to your user plugin root (~/.agents/plugins). To keep a plugin project-local instead, place it (or clone it) under <workspace>/.agents/plugins/<name> yourself.

Manage plugins

vtcode plugins list                   # installed plugins (skills + MCP counts)
vtcode plugins info my-plugin         # details: skills, MCP servers, root
vtcode plugins validate ./my-plugin   # check a plugin directory
vtcode plugins remove my-plugin       # uninstall from ~/.agents/plugins

Inside an interactive session the same management is available through the /plugin slash command:

/plugin                      # open the interactive plugin manager (TUI)
/plugin list                 # list installed plugins
/plugin info <name>          # show plugin details
/plugin add <source> [--name <id>]   # install from a git URL or local directory
/plugin remove <name>        # uninstall a plugin
/plugin validate <path>      # validate a plugin without installing
/plugin refresh              # re-discover plugin MCP providers
/plugin help                 # show command help

/plugin add behaves exactly like vtcode plugins add — it installs into ~/.agents/plugins/<name> and validates the manifest on the way in.

Use plugin skills and MCP

Once installed, no further setup is needed:

Plugin skills are loaded into the agent's skill catalog at session start and are available to the agent like any other skill (ask it to use one by name).
Plugin MCP servers appear in /mcp as <plugin>.<server> and connect automatically at session start.

Plugin skills and MCP servers are discovered from both <workspace>/.agents/plugins and ~/.agents/plugins.

Example: vtcode-plugins

vinhnx/vtcode-plugins is a real, open-source plugin that bundles nine general-purpose Agent Skills extracted from VT Code itself — Rust coding rules, codemod migrations, code review, workspace analysis, and more.

# Install it and inspect
vtcode plugins add https://github.com/vinhnx/vtcode-plugins.git
vtcode plugins list
vtcode plugins info vtcode-plugins

# Then in a session, ask the agent to use one of its skills,
# e.g. "Use the rust-skills skill"

Configure plugin behavior

The tools.plugins section of vtcode.toml governs the separate marketplace tool plugin runtime (TOML manifests registered via the manifests list):

[tools.plugins]
enabled = true                # toggle the plugin runtime
default_trust = "sandbox"     # sandbox | trusted | untrusted
allow = ["my-plugin"]         # optional allow-list
deny = []                     # optional block-list
auto_reload = true            # hot-reload manifest polling

This section does not gate Agent Plugins. Agent Plugins (~/.agents/plugins and <workspace>/.agents/plugins) are always discovered and loaded regardless of tools.plugins settings.

See the Configuration Field Reference for every tools.plugins.* option.