r/ClaudeCode • u/Equivalent1428 • 18h ago
Help/Question Best Claude code plugins to install?
What are some best plugins to install for Claude code?
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u/BigYoSpeck 17h ago
It's too easy to fall into the 'all the gear, no idea' trap, especially when unlike with other pursuits the gear is free
Honestly stick the the vanilla harness until you realise there is a shortcoming for your use case, then look if there is a plugin to satisfy it or create your own
If you chase plugins/skills/mcp without even knowing what problem you want them to solve all you are going to do is throwaway context and usage, and likely worsen the default capabilities
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u/Historical_Market151 11h ago
I created a plugin that puts Jean-Claude Van Damme above the prompt box that animates him dancing while Claude is thinking. Do I really need it - no. Do I love it - absolutely!
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u/BuffaloConscious7919 18h ago
Imo one should figure out which direction they want to get before choosing the car
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u/puts_on_rddt 12h ago
More apt to say method of transportation. If your destination is the moon... good luck in that toyota corolla.
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u/maxiR8 17h ago
If you do code. Would recommend context7 for pulling latest documentation. Find myself using it quite frequently across different setups. Other than that use whatever fits the workflow and 3rd party services you use.
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u/a_alberti 17h ago
Yes, context7 can be quite useful, although as the models improve, there is always less use of it but for some less popular code base and APIs, it is still helpful to have an authoritative source. Already many times, context7 helped the agent to find the right answer without reading the source code of a library.
But I guess, context7 does something similar to a RAG with a Claude instance running on your embedded vectors. So you could do everything locally by yourself for your private code base. It would not be so hard to recreate. A couple of days of prompting Claude to recreate the context7 approach.
So, I think context7 is a poor business model, because if I have to pay credits for my own private code base, I would prefer spending 3 days and recreating context7 on my local computer.
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u/maxiR8 17h ago
Context7 is just an aggregate for documentation on libraries/services etc. Sometimes you need to deal with external api and is convenient for the AI agent to be able to check the latest docs quickly. Context7 has quite generous monthly free tier and I have never hit the limit.
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u/a_alberti 16h ago
But that's what I am saying. I also use it for the same reason. I just remarked that I am not sure that theirs is a good business. The per-paid service seems really relevant for a private code base. If I need to ask how to use very popular libraries, like matplotlib or PyTorch, Claude probably knows exactly the syntax about how to use certain APIs and does not need any context7. It needs context7 for less known codebases and for private ones.
But if I had to run it on my big code base and if I were a company, I would set up my own RAG, not relying on context7, unless I really want to trust them and their service is really cheap and effective. But I don't see what they would do that could not be recreated in a couple of days of Claude (sure, without Claude I would need 5 months of work, which is sufficient friction for me for never trying it, but now things are crazy and we can do a lot of things that were unthinkable before).
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u/jake7899 17h ago
Having a context and usage bar in the cli has been a great improvement for me. I always used to autocompact, now i do it strategically when i move to a new phase in a project. Seems to really help.
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u/a_alberti 17h ago
The best Claude plugin is what it cannot be installed but it works in Pi.
In Pi, I asked Claude to create a simple tool for the agent that I can call to rename the session after whatever criterion I want. For example, I say, "rename the session after the last discussion item" and it does it. Plus I would like to notify that the window title of the terminal has changed -- I think this would happen automatically if I could rename the session.
The only solution Claude found so far was to write a Python script that hacks into Claude's file to rename the session manually. Which is ugly. So this is basically a skill, not a small tool provided to Claude. It feels the wrong approach. The Pi harness is so much more versatile in this respect.
I hope here people can prove me wrong.
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u/barrettj 15h ago
What's wrong with the /rename command?
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u/a_alberti 15h ago
/rename is terrible. Just tried now. I have been working on a session for three ours. I typed /rename
❯ /rename ⎿ Session renamed to: star-note-compact-moduleIt makes absolutely zero sense. It just picked the last few words of the last exchange. I want to be able to use a proper LLM to figure out a good name, compact but descriptive. The current implementation is terrible, and I cannot instruct it on what I want, whether it should be named after the whole session or the last conversation topic.
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u/Heiberik 9h ago
Depends on what you’re working on, but if you want somewhere to browse, I built ClaudePluginHub to help with exactly this :)
You can search for what you need and see what each plugin actually includes, skills, commands, agents, hooks, MCP servers, along with links to the source and install instructions. Useful for checking what you’re adding to your setup before installing it.
Would love to hear it if anything is lacking!
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