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Plugins / Marketplace#

Plugins let you share and reuse ECA configuration across projects and teams. A plugin source is a git repository or local directory containing a marketplace of plugins, each providing any combination of skills, agents, commands, rules, hooks, MCP servers, and config overrides.

Official Plugin Repository#

ECA ships with built-in support for the official plugin repository at plugins.eca.dev. This marketplace is pre-configured as the "eca" source, so you can install any of its plugins without adding a custom source — just list them in install:

~/.config/eca/config.json
{
  "plugins": {
    "install": ["secret-guard", "tdd", "security-review"]
  }
}

Browse available plugins and their documentation at plugins.eca.dev, or run /plugins inside ECA to see the full list.

Want to contribute a plugin? Check the eca-plugins repository on GitHub.

How it works#

flowchart TD
    A[ECA has a 'plugins' in config.json] --> B{Git URL or local path?}
    B -->|git| C[Clone to ~/.eca/cache/plugins]
    B -->|local| D[Use directory directly]
    C --> E[Read .eca-plugin/marketplace.json]
    D --> E
    E --> F[Read plugins from 'install']
    F --> G[Merge into final ECA config]
  1. You register one or more sources (git URL or local path) and list plugin names in install.
  2. ECA resolves each source — cloning git repos to a local cache or using the local path directly. This is done on startup and (currently) each hour thereafter.
  3. Each source provides a marketplace (.eca-plugin/marketplace.json) listing its available plugins.
  4. ECA matches install names against the marketplace, then discovers components from each matched plugin directory.
  5. All components are merged into the config waterfall, in the order specified by the install key (later plugins override earlier plugins) — user config always takes precedence on conflicts.

Commands#

/plugins#

Lists all available plugins from your configured marketplaces. Plugins that are already installed are marked with ✅.

/plugins

/plugin-install#

Installs a plugin by adding it to the install list in your global config.

/plugin-install <plugin-name>
/plugin-install <plugin-name@marketplace>

Use <plugin-name@marketplace> to disambiguate when multiple sources provide a plugin with the same name. After installing, restart ECA for the plugin to take effect.

Pointing to a plugin source / marketplace#

The official plugins.eca.dev marketplace is always available as the built-in "eca" source. To install plugins from it, just add their names to install — no source configuration needed.

To add custom sources (your organization's plugins, community repos, or local directories), add named entries under the plugins key:

No source configuration required — just list the plugins you want:

~/.config/eca/config.json
{
  "plugins": {
    "install": ["tdd", "secret-guard"]
  }
}
~/.config/eca/config.json
{
  "plugins": {
    "my-org": {
      "source": "https://github.com/my-org/eca-plugins.git"
    },
    "install": ["code-review", "security-scanner"]
  }
}
.eca/config.json
{
  "plugins": {
    "local-dev": {
      "source": "/home/user/my-eca-plugins"
    },
    "install": ["my-plugin"]
  }
}

ECA searches the built-in "eca" source plus all registered sources when resolving install entries:

~/.config/eca/config.json
{
  "plugins": {
    "company": {
      "source": "https://github.com/company/eca-plugins.git"
    },
    "community": {
      "source": "https://github.com/community/shared-plugins.git"
    },
    "install": ["company-standards", "linter-setup", "shared-skills"]
  }
}

Creating a plugin source (Plugins marketplace)#

A plugin source is a directory (typically a git repo) with a .eca-plugin/marketplace.json file that lists available plugins.

Marketplace file#

.eca-plugin/marketplace.json
{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "code-review",
      "description": "Agents and skills for thorough code review",
      "source": "plugins/code-review"
    },
    {
      "name": "security-scanner",
      "description": "Security-focused rules and hooks",
      "source": "plugins/security-scanner"
    }
  ]
}

Each plugin entry has:

Field Description
name Unique plugin name (used in install)
description Human-readable description
source Relative path from the repo root to the plugin directory

Plugin directory structure#

Each plugin directory can contain any combination of:

plugins/code-review/
├── skills/
│   └── review-checklist/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── agents/
│   └── reviewer.md
├── commands/
│   └── review.md
├── rules/
│   └── code-standards.md
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json
├── .mcp.json
└── eca.json
Path What it provides Details
skills/ Skill definitions Each subfolder follows the agentskills.io spec with a SKILL.md
agents/*.md Agent definitions Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, same format as local agents
commands/*.md Custom commands Markdown command files, same format as local commands
rules/** Rule files Any files under rules/ are loaded as rules
hooks/hooks.json Hooks ECA hook format
.mcp.json MCP server definitions Standard {"mcpServers": {...}} format
eca.json Config overrides Arbitrary ECA config keys deep-merged into config

All paths are optional — include only what your plugin needs.

plugins/gif-maker/
└── skills/
    └── gif-generator/
        ├── SKILL.md
        └── scripts/
            └── generate.py

plugins/security-scanner/
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json
└── .mcp.json

plugins/team-defaults/
└── eca.json

plugins/company-standards/
├── skills/
│   └── internal-api/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── agents/
│   └── reviewer.md
├── commands/
│   └── deploy.md
├── rules/
│   └── coding-standards.md
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json
├── .mcp.json
└── eca.json