Last week Anthropic updated its small business plugin. From the announcement: "Claude for Small Business now includes 43 workflows and 27 new integrations with tools small businesses already use, including Shopify, Salesforce, TikTok, Atlassian, Zoom, Xero, Gusto, Square, Stripe, and Zapier." The version that launched in May shipped with 15 workflows and 15 skills. Anthropic says it has been installed more than 900,000 times.
I also use pre-made plugins as and when needed. Given it’s so helpful in driving speed to value when using AI tools, we are doing a deep dive on plugins in this issue.
What a plugin is, the components inside it, and how to read what’s inside it so you can choose the one that matters to you.
What a plugin is
A plugin can be thought of as what you hand a new hire on day one.
The procedures written down, so they do not have to ask how things get done here. The system access, so they can open the tools their job runs on. And the shorthand your team already uses out loud, so "run the weekly report" means one specific thing to everybody.
There are three parts to it.
Skills. The procedures. Each one is a job written down in enough detail that Claude can follow it. You call it by name, or Claude picks it up on its own when the work fits.
Connections. The system access. A connection is what lets Claude open a tool you already pay for and work inside it. It decides whether a Skill produces work or produces a template. With a calendar, a meeting recorder and a CRM connected, one Skill can read across all three in a single run.
Commands. The shorthand. Type a slash and a name, and the procedure runs.
Some plugins also ship their own sub-agents, which a Skill can hand one piece of the job to. Anthropic's documentation lists more parts than this, including hooks and background monitors, and plenty of plugins ship Skills alone. Three is what you will see in the interface.
And like any new hire, a plugin arrives knowing how a generic company works. The first few weeks are you teaching it how yours does.
Let’s dive into the details. We are using the Marketing plugin by Anthropic to understand the various components.
Screen 1: Overview. What the plugin is and what it connects to.
The Overview tab. Author, version, size and what it connects to.
The header line: Marketing, by Anthropic, 1.2.0, 8 skills, updated 5 days ago. Who built it, which version you are on, how many Skills it carries, and when it last changed.
Four tabs run across the top: Overview, Contents 13, Skills 8, Connectors 13. The counts tell you the size of the plugin before you install it.
The description, in Anthropic's words: "Create content, plan campaigns, and analyze performance across marketing channels. Maintain brand voice consistency, track competitors, and report on what's working."
Below it, six "Try it" prompts you can click to run immediately. "Draft a blog post with SEO optimization." "Plan a multi-channel campaign." "Review content against our brand voice." Underneath them: or type /marketing in any chat.
And on the right, the connectors panel, with a small notice at the top of it: "Can send data to other services."
Screen 2: Contents. What the plugin ships with.
The Contents tab. The plugin's own files, starting with the README.
The Contents tab lists every file in the plugin. A good starting point is to read the README file as shown above. It says what the plugin is for: a marketing plugin built primarily for Cowork, Anthropic's agentic desktop app, that also runs in Claude Code, covering content creation, campaign planning, brand voice, competitive analysis and performance reporting. Underneath that, the install command, and a table of every command the plugin gives you.
Every file here is readable. A plugin is a folder of written instructions, and you can read all of it before you install.
Screen 3: Skills. The eight it installs.
The Skills tab. Eight SOPs, each callable with a slash.
At the top of this tab: "Invoke by typing / in chat, or let Claude use them automatically for relevant tasks." So you can call one by name, and Claude can also pick one on its own when the work fits.
The eight, as the screen lists them:
/performance-report. Key metrics, trend analysis, wins and misses, and prioritized optimization recommendations.
/campaign-plan. A full campaign brief. Objectives, audience, messaging, channel strategy, content calendar, success metrics.
/draft-content. Blog posts, social media, email newsletters, landing pages, press releases and case studies, with channel-specific formatting and SEO recommendations.
/seo-audit. Keyword research, on-page analysis, content gaps, technical checks and competitor comparison.
/competitive-brief. Competitor research turned into a positioning and messaging comparison with content gaps, opportunities and threats.
/content-creation. The craft layer underneath the drafting: channel formatting, SEO-optimized copy, headline options, calls to action.
/brand-review. Reviews content against your brand voice, style guide and messaging pillars, flagging deviations by severity with specific before-and-after fixes.
/email-sequence. Multi-email sequences with full copy, timing, branching logic, exit conditions and performance benchmarks.
Check that list against your own week. If two of those eight describe work you did in the last thirty days, the plugin is worth installing.
You can edit these. The eight Skills describe how a generic marketing team works. Change the file to match how yours works, and every run after that uses your version.
Screen 4: Connectors. What it needs, and what you have.
The Connectors tab. Connected, not connected, not added.
The instruction at the top: "Tools and data sources this plugin connects to. Connect each one so Claude can use it."
Thirteen tools. Slack, Canva, Figma, HubSpot, Amplitude, a second Amplitude for the EU region, Notion, Ahrefs, Similarweb, Klaviyo, Supermetrics, Google Calendar and Gmail.
Three states show up in that list:
Connected. Slack, Canva and Notion. Skills that need those can run now.
Not connected. HubSpot and Ahrefs. The connector is available and not signed in.
Not added. Figma, both Amplitudes, Similarweb, Klaviyo and Supermetrics. Not set up.
You need the tools to create the outputs with your own data. A tool is what a Skill uses to reach your company's numbers. /performance-report with nothing connected writes a structured template with no data in it. But when you connect HubSpot, the same Skill pulls your campaign numbers into the report.
You do not need all thirteen. Start from the one Skill you want running this week and connect what that Skill needs. Claude asks for a tool when a Skill reaches for it, so the list does not have to be right up front.
Where plugins come from
Three places.
Anthropic publishes by department. Marketing, sales, finance, legal, customer support, HR, and the small business one this issue opened with. Free, deliberately generic, and written to be opened up and edited.
The software you already pay for publishes its own. Wix, Airtable, Twilio and ZoomInfo all have one in the directory. The company that builds the product writes the Skills, so what you install carries their own view of how their product should be used.
You publish your own. Once you have built a few Skills, you can ask Claude to bundle them into a plugin. If you run marketing or lead a sales team, you are the person setting the SOPs. Build the Skills once, include the connections they need, and hand the plugin to your team so everyone works from the same setup.
Independent builders publish them too.
How to pick one
Search by the function you need. "Marketing." "SEO." "Small business."
Open the Skills tab before you install. Two of eight matching your real work is a good reason to install and try.
Check the Connectors tab for what you would actually have to sign into.
Open the Contents tab and read one Skill file end to end.
Run that Skill on a job you have already done yourself, so you can grade the output against something real.
Correct it once, in writing, in the Skill file.
Where to pay attention
Installing a plugin gives it access to every tool you connect it to. That is the same access you would hand a new employee, granted in one click. Five places to look.
Connecting a tool grants access to it. Claude can read what is in that tool, and with some connectors it can write too: draft an email, update a record, post a message. The permission screen at connect time tells you which. Read it before you approve.
Skills can run without you calling them. The Skills tab says Claude can "use them automatically for relevant tasks," so a Skill can fire on the shape of your request rather than on you typing its name. Read the Contents tab so you know what is able to start on its own.
Check who built it. Anthropic's own plugins and the ones from software you already hold a contract with need no vetting. Anything from an independent builder does, because installing it hands over the same access.
💡 The rule
A plugin is a bundle of Skills, connections and commands that installs in one step, and every one of those Skills is a document you should read prior to testing.
Open the Contents tab before you install, connect only what the Skill you care about actually needs, and write your corrections back into the Skill so the second run is better than the first.
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Sources
Anthropic, "Claude for Small Business launches new workflows, integrations, and training programs," 15 September 2026. Link
Anthropic, "Introducing Claude for Small Business," 13 May 2026. Link
Anthropic, Marketing plugin v1.2.0, viewed in the Claude plugin manager, 20 September 2026. Overview, Skills, Connectors and Contents tabs.
Anthropic, "Create plugins," Claude Code documentation, accessed 20 September 2026. Link
Anthropic, knowledge-work-plugins repository, marketing Skill files, accessed 20 September 2026. Link
