Validate Manifest

"The manifest is the contract between the plugin and the runtime. A broken contract breaks trust."

Validates that plugin.json is well-formed JSON, contains all required and recommended fields, and that its declared counts and references match the actual plugin contents.

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Procedure

Step 1 -- Parse JSON

• Look for plugin.json at plugin root first (official spec location), then fall back to .claude-plugin/plugin.json (legacy location). Report INFO if found at legacy path.
• Attempt strict JSON parse. If it fails:
  • Check for trailing commas after last array/object element -- report CRITICAL: Trailing comma at line N.
  • Check for JavaScript-style comments (//, /* */) -- report CRITICAL: Comments not allowed in JSON.
  • Check for single quotes instead of double quotes -- report CRITICAL: JSON requires double quotes.
• If JSON is unparseable after diagnostics, STOP and report. Subsequent steps require valid JSON.

Step 2 -- Validate Required Fields

• name: Must exist, must be a string, must match kebab-case pattern ^[a-z][a-z0-9]*(-[a-z0-9]+)*$. CRITICAL if missing or invalid.

Step 2b -- Validate Strongly Recommended Fields

Per the official plugin spec, only name is strictly required. The following are strongly recommended:

• version: Should match semver ^\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+$ (e.g., 1.0.0). No v prefix. WARNING if missing or invalid format.
• description: Should be a string with length > 20 characters. WARNING if missing, INFO if too short.

Step 3 -- Validate Recommended Fields

• author: Should exist as a string (e.g., "Jane") or an object with at minimum a name string (e.g., {"name": "Jane"}). Both formats are valid per the official spec. WARNING if missing.
• license: Should exist as a string (e.g., MIT, GPL-3.0, All Rights Reserved). WARNING if missing.
• keywords: Should exist as an array with 3+ string entries. WARNING if missing or fewer than 3.
• repository: INFO if missing (helpful for discoverability but not required).

Step 4 -- Consistency Checks

• name vs. directory: The name field should match the plugin's root directory name. WARNING if mismatch.
• Skill count: If manifest declares a skill count or lists skills, verify against actual skills/*/SKILL.md count. WARNING on mismatch.
• Command count: Same check for commands vs. actual commands/*.md files. WARNING on mismatch.
• Agent count: Same check for agents vs. actual agents/*.md files. WARNING on mismatch.
• Version reasonability: If version is 0.0.0, report INFO: Placeholder version detected.

Step 5 -- Forbidden Fields

• plugin.json MUST NOT contain: scripts, hooks, settings, dependencies, devDependencies.
• These belong in other files (hooks.json, settings.json, package.json).
• Report CRITICAL for hooks or scripts keys (indicates confusion with package.json).
• Report WARNING for settings key (belongs in settings.json).

Step 6 -- Generate Manifest Report

• Produce findings table: | Severity | Field | Finding | Current Value |.
• Include a manifest completeness score: (present required + present recommended) / total expected fields as percentage.
• If all required fields valid and no CRITICAL findings: "Manifest validation PASSED".

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Quality Criteria

• JSON parse errors include the exact line number and character position when possible.
• Every field check states the expected format alongside the actual value found.
• Consistency checks compare declared vs. actual counts with specific numbers.
• The completeness percentage gives an at-a-glance quality indicator.
• Required vs recommended vs optional field severity levels match the official plugin spec.

Assumptions & Limits

• Read-only. This skill never modifies plugin.json.
• Per the official spec, only name is strictly required. Marking version/description as CRITICAL would over-enforce beyond the spec.
• Cannot validate that author URLs or repository URLs are reachable -- only checks format.
• Does not validate the content quality of fields (e.g., whether the description is useful), only their presence and format.
• Consistency checks depend on the plugin's actual directory contents -- if skills/ is empty, the count check passes trivially.

Good vs Bad

Bad finding:

WARNING: version field is missing.

Missing: no expected format, no guidance.

Good finding:

WARNING | version | Missing. Expected: semver string (e.g., "1.0.0"). | (absent)

Includes: severity, field name, expected format with example, current value.

Anti-Patterns

1. Accepting version: "1.0" as valid semver (must be three components).
2. Not detecting the v prefix in version strings (v1.0.0 is invalid).
3. Rejecting author: "Jane" (string) — the official spec accepts both string and object formats for author.
4. Ignoring extra unknown fields without at least an INFO note.

Edge Cases

1. plugin.json with BOM (byte order mark) -- strip before parsing, report INFO.
2. Very large description (>500 chars) -- INFO suggesting it may be too verbose for tooling.
3. Unicode characters in name field -- CRITICAL, names must be ASCII kebab-case.
4. Duplicate keys in JSON (technically valid but undefined behavior) -- WARNING.
5. Empty keywords array [] -- WARNING, same as missing.