Best Practices Hub

This repository is a Claude Code plugin marketplace for NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) Engineering Node. It distributes 8 specialized AI agents that automate complex workflows within the Claude Code CLI environment. Each skill is installed individually from the @pds-agent-skills marketplace.

🔌 Marketplace: pds-agent-skills — GitHub workflows • SonarCloud security • Dependabot security

Table of Contents

• What are Claude Code Skills?
• Available Skills
• Installation
  • 🆕 Recommended: Plugin Marketplace
  • Alternative: Manual Installation (Legacy)
• Troubleshooting
• Using Plugins
• Adding a New Skill
• Updating an Existing Skill
• Repository Structure
• Contributing
• Changelog
• License
• Support

What are Claude Code Skills?

Claude Code skills are reusable prompts that enable Claude Code to perform specialized tasks autonomously. Each skill is defined by a SKILL.md file containing:

• Detailed instructions for task execution
• Input/output specifications
• Style rules and algorithms
• Edge case handling

Skills help automate repetitive or complex workflows, making development more efficient and consistent across the PDS organization.

Available Skills

🔌 GitHub Workflow Skills

Skill	Description	Use Cases
generating-release-notes	Generate structured GitHub release notes with breaking changes, categorization, and upload	Software releases, changelogs, version announcements
generating-accomplishments	Generate PDS accomplishment status reports from activity.json or live lasso-issues data, grouped by PDC account (Platform Engineering, Node Support, CloudOps)	Sprint reports, quarterly reports, annual accomplishments, status updates
creating-pds-issues	Create GitHub issues using NASA-PDS organizational templates	Bug reports, feature requests, tasks, vulnerabilities, release themes
creating-pds-pull-requests	Create GitHub pull requests with auto-detection of repo/branch, issue linking, reviewer assignment, and label management	Opening PRs, submitting code changes, linking issues to PRs, draft PRs

🔒 Security Workflow Skills

Skill	Description	Use Cases
sonarcloud-security-exporting	Export SonarCloud security issues for NASA PDS repositories to CSV	Security audits, vulnerability reports, data export
sonarcloud-security-triaging	Analyze security issues and suggest triage decisions with code context and explanations	Security review, making triage decisions, identifying false positives
sonarcloud-security-updating	Apply triage decisions to SonarCloud by bulk-updating security issue statuses and comments	Applying triage outcomes, bulk remediation, compliance tracking
dependabot-alerts-exporting	Export GitHub Dependabot dependency vulnerability alerts for NASA PDS repositories to JSON	Dependency audits, CVE exports, vulnerability reports
dependabot-alerts-triaging	Analyze Dependabot alerts and suggest triage decisions with exploitability assessment	CVE triage, dependency review, identifying false positives

Total: 9 production-ready skills in the @pds-agent-skills marketplace

Installation

Prerequisites

• Claude Code CLI: Install from claude.ai/code or via Homebrew:

  brew install claude
  

• Claude Desktop: Download from claude.ai/download (plugins work in projects mode)
• For release notes upload: GitHub CLI (gh) installed and authenticated

🆕 Recommended: Plugin Marketplace (Easy Updates & Version Management)

The easiest way to install and manage PDS plugins with automatic updates and version control.

Option A: Public GitHub Repository

Add the marketplace once:

/plugin marketplace add NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills

Install individual skills as needed:

# List available skills
/plugin list @pds-agent-skills

# GitHub workflow skills
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install creating-pds-issues@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install creating-pds-pull-requests@pds-agent-skills

# Security skills (SonarCloud + Dependabot)
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-exporting@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-updating@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install dependabot-alerts-exporting@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install dependabot-alerts-triaging@pds-agent-skills

# Or install all 9 skills at once
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills generating-accomplishments@pds-agent-skills creating-pds-issues@pds-agent-skills creating-pds-pull-requests@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-exporting@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-updating@pds-agent-skills dependabot-alerts-exporting@pds-agent-skills dependabot-alerts-triaging@pds-agent-skills

Update to latest versions:

/plugin marketplace update pds-agent-skills
/plugin update generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills generating-accomplishments@pds-agent-skills creating-pds-issues@pds-agent-skills creating-pds-pull-requests@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-exporting@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills sonarcloud-security-updating@pds-agent-skills dependabot-alerts-exporting@pds-agent-skills dependabot-alerts-triaging@pds-agent-skills

Option B: Local/Internal Installation

For internal use, air-gapped environments, or testing before publishing:

Clone the repository first:

# Clone to a local directory
git clone https://github.com/NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills.git ~/pds-plugins

# Or for internal use, clone from your internal git server
git clone https://git.your-org.com/pds/pds-agent-skills.git ~/pds-plugins

Add the local marketplace:

# Option 1: Use absolute path (recommended)
/plugin marketplace add /Users/yourname/pds-plugins

# Option 2: Add from parent directory
cd ~
/plugin marketplace add pds-plugins

# Option 3: Use tilde expansion
/plugin marketplace add ~/pds-plugins

Important: Run the /plugin marketplace add command from outside the marketplace directory, pointing to the directory that contains .claude-plugin/. Don't run it from inside the marketplace directory itself.

Install skills:

# List available skills (marketplace name will be auto-generated from path)
/plugin list @pds-plugins

# Install individual skills (same names, different marketplace suffix)
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-plugins
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-plugins
# ... repeat for each skill as needed

Update from local marketplace:

# Pull latest changes first
cd ~/pds-plugins
git pull

# Then update the marketplace in Claude Code
/plugin marketplace update pds-plugins
/plugin update generating-release-notes@pds-plugins creating-pds-issues@pds-plugins # ... etc

Option C: Private Git Repository

For private organizational repositories:

# Add private repository with authentication
/plugin marketplace add https://git.your-org.com/pds/pds-agent-skills.git

# Or use SSH
/plugin marketplace add [email protected]:your-org/pds-agent-skills.git

Make sure you're authenticated with your git provider (e.g., gh auth login for GitHub).

Benefits of Plugin Marketplace:

• ✅ One command to add marketplace
• ✅ Automatic version management
• ✅ Easy updates with /plugin marketplace update
• ✅ Install only the plugins you need
• ✅ Works with public, private, or local repositories
• ✅ Official Anthropic plugin system

---

Alternative: Manual Installation (Legacy)

For backwards compatibility or air-gapped environments, you can still manually install plugins.

Option 1: Project-Level Skills (Recommended for Teams)

Project-level skills are shared with your team via version control and automatically available when team members pull changes.

Install for a specific project:

# Navigate to your project directory
cd your-project

# Create the skills directory
mkdir -p .claude/skills

# Clone this repository into the skills directory
git clone https://github.com/NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills.git .claude/skills/pds

# Commit to version control
git add .claude/skills/pds
git commit -m "Add PDS Claude Code skills"

Or add as a git submodule (recommended for easier updates):

cd your-project
mkdir -p .claude/skills
git submodule add https://github.com/NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills.git .claude/skills/pds
git commit -m "Add PDS Claude Code skills as submodule"

Team members can then pull the changes, and skills become immediately available:

git pull
git submodule update --init --recursive  # if using submodules

Option 2: Personal Skills (Available Across All Projects)

Personal skills are available in all your projects, stored in your home directory.

Install globally:

# Create personal skills directory
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills

# Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills.git ~/.claude/skills/pds

Update personal skills:

cd ~/.claude/skills/pds
git pull

Option 3: Direct Git Reference

Deprecated: Use the plugin marketplace method instead. Direct git references are kept for backwards compatibility only.

Troubleshooting

Issue: "Failed to load marketplace" or "Invalid schema" Error

Symptoms:

/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
⎿  Failed to load marketplace "claude-plugins-official" from source (github): Failed to parse
   marketplace file at .../claude-plugins-official/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json: Invalid schema

Cause: The official Claude plugins marketplace (claude-plugins-official) may have a corrupted or outdated schema that prevents plugin installation.

Solution 1: Remove and re-add the official marketplace

# Remove the corrupted marketplace
/plugin marketplace remove claude-plugins-official

# Try to re-add it (if this fails, proceed to Solution 2)
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official

Solution 2: Install skills without the official marketplace

The PDS skills can be installed independently without the official marketplace:

# Remove the corrupted marketplace
/plugin marketplace remove claude-plugins-official

# Install PDS skills directly (example — repeat for each skill)
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills

Solution 3: Manually clean up the marketplace directory

If the above solutions don't work:

# Remove the corrupted marketplace directory
rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-plugins-official

# Update your PDS marketplace
/plugin marketplace update pds-agent-skills

# Install PDS skills (example — repeat for each skill)
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
/plugin install sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills

Issue: Skill Not Found

Symptoms:

/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
Error: Plugin not found

Solution: Ensure the marketplace is added and updated:

# Add the marketplace if not already added
/plugin marketplace add NASA-PDS/pds-agent-skills

# Update the marketplace to fetch latest skill catalog
/plugin marketplace update pds-agent-skills

# List available skills to verify
/plugin list @pds-agent-skills

# Install the skill
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills

Issue: Marketplace Name Mismatch

Problem: When adding from GitHub, the marketplace name is pds-agent-skills (derived from the repository name), not pds-claude-skills.

Solution: Always use pds-agent-skills as the marketplace identifier:

# Correct
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills

# Incorrect (will fail)
/plugin install generating-release-notes@pds-claude-skills

Verify Installation

To confirm skills are installed correctly:

# Check installed skills
/plugin list

# Should show each installed skill, e.g.:
# ✓ generating-release-notes@pds-agent-skills
# ✓ creating-pds-issues@pds-agent-skills
# ✓ sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills
# ...

# View installation details
cat ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json

Getting Help

If issues persist:

1. Check Claude Code version: claude --version (requires v1.0.0+)
2. Review Claude Code logs: ~/.claude/logs/
3. Open an issue in this repository with error details
4. Contact PDS Engineering Node team

Using Plugins

Once installed via the plugin marketplace, plugins are automatically available in Claude Code.

How it works:

1. Install plugins from the marketplace (see Installation above)
2. Open Claude Code in your project directory (CLI) or start a project in Claude Desktop
3. Describe your task naturally — Claude will autonomously use relevant plugins based on your request
4. Provide necessary inputs as described in each plugin's documentation

pds-agent-skills examples

# Generate release notes for a specific version
claude "Generate release notes for NASA-PDS/doi-service version v1.6.0"

# Create a GitHub issue from a template
claude "Create a bug report issue in NASA-PDS/registry"

# Open a pull request for the current branch
claude "Create a PR for this branch, closes issue #42"

security-skills examples

The SonarCloud skills follow a three-step pipeline: export → triage → update.

Export all security issues for NASA PDS:

Export all SonarCloud security issues for nasa-pds to JSON in ~/security-audit

Triage the exported issues:

Help me triage the SonarCloud issues in ~/security-audit/sonarcloud-security-issues-20260418.json

Apply approved decisions to SonarCloud:

Apply the triage decisions from ~/security-audit/sonarcloud-security-triaged-20260418.json — dry run first

Run the full pipeline in one session:

Do a complete SonarCloud security audit and triage for NASA PDS.
Export all issues to JSON, triage them repository by repository, then apply approved decisions.
Save everything to ~/pds-security-audit.

Prerequisites for security-skills: Node.js v18+. SonarCloud skills require SONARCLOUD_TOKEN; Dependabot skills require GITHUB_TOKEN with security_events scope. See the SonarCloud Skills Guide for setup instructions and a full list of example prompts.

Managing Skills

# List installed skills
/plugin list

# List available skills in marketplace
/plugin list @pds-agent-skills

# Update a specific skill
/plugin update sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills

# Uninstall a skill
/plugin uninstall sonarcloud-security-triaging@pds-agent-skills

📚 Detailed guides:

• SonarCloud Skills Guide — installation, example prompts, full workflow, troubleshooting
• Plugin Marketplace Installation Guide — local, private repo, and air-gapped install scenarios

Adding a New Skill

This repository is registry-driven: contributors edit one source-of-truth file (static/data/registry.json), and the Claude Code plugin manifest (.claude-plugin/marketplace.json) is regenerated from it by the build. Do not edit marketplace.json by hand — it is a build artifact, and a CI check rejects any drift.

See CLAUDE.md for deeper development guidance, and the existing skills under static/marketplace/skills/ for examples.

Quick steps:

1. Create the skill folder — static/marketplace/skills/<skill-name>/ (use gerund form: generating-*, processing-*, creating-*).

2. Add SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter (name, description) and the full instructions. Include any supporting scripts/, resources/, or templates/ as needed.

3. Add an entry to the skills array in static/data/registry.json:

   {
     "name": "<skill-name>",
     "displayName": "Human Readable Name",
     "description": "What it does and when to use it",
     "category": "development-workflow",
     "tags": ["github", "automation", "pds"],
     "example": "An example request a user might make",
     "lastUpdated": "YYYY-MM-DD"
   }
   

   Author only the semantic fields above. The build derives type, skill_file_url, and zip_file_path automatically — do not write them by hand. Optional passthrough fields: dependencies, version, author, homepage, repository, license. Categories are defined in the same file under metadata.categoryIcons; add a new "<category>": "<emoji>" entry there to introduce a category.

4. Regenerate the manifest:

   npm run prebuild
   

   This runs src/conf/generate-marketplace.js, which writes .claude-plugin/marketplace.json from the registry. The registry-check CI workflow fails if the committed manifest drifts out of sync.

5. Update CHANGELOG.md following Keep a Changelog.

6. Test locally — npm run start (dev server) or npm run build && npm run serve (production preview).

7. Commit both static/data/registry.json and .claude-plugin/marketplace.json, then submit a pull request.

For marketplace configuration: See docs/MARKETPLACE_SETUP.md.

Updating an Existing Skill

The same registry-driven flow applies — edit static/data/registry.json (and the skill files), then regenerate.

Change a skill's behavior — edit files under static/marketplace/skills/<skill-name>/ (its SKILL.md, scripts, templates, resources). No further metadata work is needed unless the change affects how the skill is described.

Change how the skill appears in the catalog — edit that skill's entry in static/data/registry.json:

• displayName — human-readable name shown on the catalog card
• description — short summary shown in the card and used for skill discovery
• category — where the skill appears in the category tree (e.g. development-workflow, security)
• tags — filter pills on the card
• example — example user request shown beneath the install instructions
• dependencies, version, author, homepage, repository, license — optional metadata

Bump the timestamp — whenever a skill changes in any meaningful way, set its lastUpdated to today's date in YYYY-MM-DD format (e.g. "2026-05-22"). The catalog sorts and labels skills by this field, so an accurate timestamp keeps the marketplace's "what changed recently" view truthful.

Regenerate the manifest:

npm run prebuild

Remove a skill — delete its folder under static/marketplace/skills/ and its entry from static/data/registry.json, then run npm run prebuild.

Update CHANGELOG.md and commit both static/data/registry.json and the updated .claude-plugin/marketplace.json.

Repository Structure

pds-agent-skills/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── marketplace.json        # Claude Code plugin manifest — GENERATED from static/data/registry.json
├── static/
│   ├── data/
│   │   └── registry.json       # Hand-authored SOURCE OF TRUTH (marketplace identity + all skills)
│   ├── img/                    # Logo, favicon, hero images
│   └── marketplace/
│       └── skills/             # All skill content (one folder per skill)
│           ├── creating-pds-issues/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   ├── scripts/
│           │   └── resources/
│           ├── creating-pds-pull-requests/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   └── scripts/
│           ├── generating-release-notes/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   ├── templates/
│           │   └── resources/
│           ├── dependabot-alerts-exporting/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   └── scripts/
│           ├── dependabot-alerts-triaging/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   └── scripts/
│           ├── sonarcloud-security-exporting/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   └── scripts/
│           ├── sonarcloud-security-triaging/
│           │   └── SKILL.md
│           ├── sonarcloud-security-updating/
│           │   ├── SKILL.md
│           │   └── scripts/
│           └── shared-resources/
│               └── pds-labels.yaml
├── src/
│   ├── conf/
│   │   └── generate-marketplace.js  # Generates marketplace.json from registry.json
│   ├── components/             # Marketplace website (React/Docusaurus)
│   ├── pages/                  # Website pages
│   └── css/                    # Styles
├── docs/
│   ├── about/                  # Marketplace "About" page (Docusaurus)
│   ├── contribute/             # "Contribute" docs (Docusaurus)
│   ├── faq/                    # FAQ (Docusaurus)
│   ├── history/                # AI session histories
│   ├── MARKETPLACE_SETUP.md    # GitHub configuration guide
│   ├── PLUGIN_MARKETPLACE_GUIDE.md  # Comprehensive install guide
│   ├── SECURITY_SKILLS_GUIDE.md     # Security skills usage guide
│   └── PRODUCTS_README.md      # Product mapping documentation
├── .github/
│   ├── CODEOWNERS
│   ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/         # Issue templates
│   └── workflows/              # CI — secrets-detection, registry-check, Pages deploy
├── scripts/
│   └── detect_secrets_baseline.sh
├── docusaurus.config.js        # Marketplace website configuration
├── package.json                # Node dependencies for the website
├── sidebars.js                 # Website docs sidebar layout
├── CLAUDE.md                   # Developer guidance for Claude Code
├── CONTRIBUTING.md             # Contribution guidelines
├── README.md                   # This file
└── CHANGELOG.md                # Project changelog

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! When adding new skills:

1. Follow the skill structure outlined in CLAUDE.md
2. Ensure comprehensive documentation in the SKILL.md file
3. Test your skill with various inputs and edge cases
4. Update the changelog following Keep a Changelog format
5. Submit a pull request with a clear description of the skill's purpose

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a history of changes to this project.

License

Copyright (c) 2022 California Institute of Technology ("Caltech"). U.S. Government sponsorship acknowledged.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE.md for details.

Support

This repository is maintained by NASA's Planetary Data System Engineering Node.

For questions or issues:

• Open an issue in this repository
• Refer to Claude Code documentation
• Contact the PDS Engineering Node team