claudebase

ClaudeBase CLI

Command-line tool for managing Claude Code plugins from the ClaudeBase catalog.

Version: 1.0.0

Documentation

• Plugin Installation - How plugins are installed
• Offline Mode - Working without network
• Security Model - Trust boundaries and guarantees
• Limitations - Intentional constraints

Installation

npm install -g claudebase

Quick Start

# Refresh the plugin catalog (required before first install)
claudebase catalog refresh

# Install a plugin
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin

# List installed plugins
claudebase plugin list

Catalog Discovery Model

The CLI uses a predictable, safe, and transparent catalog discovery model:

Key Principles

• Infinite TTL - The catalog cache never expires automatically
• Explicit Refresh - Network calls only on explicit user action or bounded one-shot miss
• Offline First - All operations work offline if cache exists
• Fail Closed - Unknown schema versions or fields cause immediate failure

Plugin Discovery Flow

claudebase plugin add <name>
├── Check local cache for plugin
├── If found → proceed to install
├── If NOT found AND not --offline:
│   ├── Fetch index.json (one attempt)
│   ├── If new snapshot hash → fetch and validate
│   ├── Retry lookup once
│   └── If still not found → fail with message
└── If NOT found AND --offline → fail immediately

Commands

Catalog Commands

claudebase catalog refresh

Fetch the latest catalog from the ClaudeBase dashboard.

claudebase catalog refresh
claudebase catalog refresh --catalog-url https://custom.api.com/api/catalog

Options:

• --catalog-url <url> - Custom catalog URL (default: CLAUDEBASE_CATALOG_URL env var or https://api.claudebase.com/api/catalog)

claudebase catalog status

Show catalog cache status.

claudebase catalog status

claudebase catalog clear

Clear the catalog cache.

claudebase catalog clear

claudebase catalog list

List all public plugins in the catalog.

claudebase catalog list

Plugin Commands

claudebase plugin add <name>

Install a plugin from the catalog.

claudebase plugin add demo-plugin
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin --allow-unlisted
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin --offline
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin --refresh-catalog

Options:

• --allow-unlisted - Allow installing unlisted plugins
• --allow-downgrade - Allow downgrading to an older version
• --refresh-catalog - Force refresh catalog before lookup (conflicts with --offline)
• --offline - Enforce offline mode (no network calls)
• --force - Force reinstall even if same version is installed

One-Shot Miss Behavior: When a plugin is not found in the cached catalog and --offline is not set:

• CLI fetches index.json once
• If new snapshot hash, fetches and validates new snapshot
• Retries lookup exactly once
• If still not found, fails with deterministic message

claudebase plugin remove <name>

Remove an installed plugin.

claudebase plugin remove demo-plugin

claudebase plugin list

List installed plugins.

claudebase plugin list

claudebase plugin verify [name]

Verify installed plugin(s) integrity.

claudebase plugin verify           # Verify all plugins
claudebase plugin verify demo-plugin  # Verify specific plugin

claudebase plugin info <name>

Show detailed information about a plugin.

claudebase plugin info demo-plugin

Cache Commands

claudebase cache status

Show package cache status.

claudebase cache status

claudebase cache clear

Clear the package cache.

claudebase cache clear

Network Boundaries

The CLI enforces strict network boundaries per command:

Commands That MAY Hit Network

Command	Network Condition
catalog refresh	Always (unless --offline)
plugin add	One-shot miss refresh OR --refresh-catalog OR npm tarball fetch

Commands That NEVER Hit Network

Command	Network
catalog status	Never
catalog clear	Never
catalog list	Never
plugin list	Never
plugin remove	Never
plugin verify	Never
plugin info	Never
cache status	Never
cache clear	Never

Offline Mode (--offline)

When --offline is set:

• Zero network calls - Any network attempt fails immediately
• Works with cached catalog and cached tarballs only
• Deterministic error messages for missing data

# Install only if everything is cached
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin --offline

# This will fail - refresh requires network
claudebase catalog refresh --offline  # Error!

Force Refresh

# Force catalog refresh before plugin lookup
claudebase plugin add demo-plugin --refresh-catalog

Note: --refresh-catalog and --offline conflict and cannot be used together.

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
CLAUDEBASE_CATALOG_URL	Catalog API base URL	https://api.claudebase.com/api/catalog

Error Codes

The CLI uses deterministic error codes for scripting:

Catalog Errors

• CATALOG_FETCH_FAILED - Network error fetching catalog
• CATALOG_INVALID_JSON - Catalog response is not valid JSON
• CATALOG_UNKNOWN_SCHEMA_VERSION - Unsupported catalog schema version (exit code 3)
• CATALOG_UNKNOWN_FIELD - Unknown field in catalog (fail-closed)
• CATALOG_HASH_MISMATCH - Snapshot hash doesn't match index
• CATALOG_CACHE_CORRUPTED - Local cache is corrupted
• CATALOG_DOWNGRADE_DETECTED - Index points to older snapshot

Plugin Errors

• PLUGIN_NOT_FOUND - Plugin not in catalog (exit code 2)
• PLUGIN_REVOKED - Plugin has been revoked
• PLUGIN_UNLISTED - Plugin is unlisted (use --allow-unlisted)
• PLUGIN_NAME_MISMATCH - Name doesn't match across sources

Install Errors

• INSTALL_TARBALL_SYMLINK - Tarball contains symlinks (blocked)
• INSTALL_TARBALL_PATH_TRAVERSAL - Tarball contains path traversal
• INSTALL_TARBALL_FORBIDDEN_FILE - Tarball contains forbidden files
• INSTALL_LIFECYCLE_SCRIPTS - package.json has lifecycle scripts
• INSTALL_INTEGRITY_MISMATCH - File hashes don't match integrity.json
• INSTALL_MISSING_PLUGIN_JSON - Missing .claude-plugin/plugin.json

Network Policy Errors

• OFFLINE_MODE_VIOLATION - Network access attempted in offline mode (exit code 4)

Version Errors

• VERSION_DOWNGRADE_FORBIDDEN - Downgrade not allowed (use --allow-downgrade)

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Network failure
2	Plugin not found
3	Schema version unsupported
4	Offline mode violation
5	General catalog error

Security

The CLI enforces strict security measures:

• Allowlist enforcement - Only public plugins from the catalog are installable
• No lifecycle scripts - Packages with npm lifecycle scripts are rejected
• No symlinks - Tarballs containing symlinks are rejected
• Path traversal protection - Paths like ../ are rejected
• Integrity verification - All files verified against integrity.json
• Scope enforcement - Only @claudebase/* packages accepted
• Fail closed - Unknown schema versions or fields cause immediate failure
• Hash verification - Snapshot content must match index hash
• Downgrade detection - Older snapshots are rejected automatically
• Audit logging - All catalog operations logged locally (no telemetry)

Downgrade Attack Protection

The CLI tracks the "latest seen" snapshot timestamp monotonically:

• If index.json points to an older snapshot, refresh is blocked
• Warning message explains the situation
• User must explicitly act to use an older snapshot

Catalog Poisoning Defense

• Index hash must match snapshot content hash
• Unknown fields in catalog entries cause failure
• Schema version must be in supported set

Cache Locations

OS	Catalog Cache	Tarball Cache
macOS/Linux	~/.claudebase/cache/catalog/	~/.claudebase/cache/tarballs/
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\claudebase\cache\catalog\	%LOCALAPPDATA%\claudebase\cache\tarballs\

Plugin Installation Location

Plugins are installed to Claude Code's expected location:

~/.claude/plugins/<plugin-name>/
├── package.json
├── integrity.json
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json
├── skills/           (if plugin has skills)
│   └── *.json
└── .mcp.json         (if plugin has MCP servers)

License

MIT