Authoring a marketplace

A kendex marketplace is a git repository of skills, agents, and hooks. There is no registration step and no format to learn first. Any repository that holds skills already works: kendex marketplace subscribe owner/repo finds them where they are (skills/, .claude/skills, a single root SKILL.md, or a Claude plugin registry). Everything below is optional structure that makes a repository easier to browse, check, and publish.

Start here

Scaffold a repository:

kendex marketplace new my-marketplace

That creates the folder with a kendex.toml, a README, the check workflow, and a licence, and initialises it as a git repository. Add packages, push it to GitHub, and submit it.

Templates for each file are in the repository.

The layout

my-marketplace/
  kendex.toml            what this marketplace says about itself
  agents/<name>.md       one agent per file
  skills/<name>/SKILL.md one folder per skill (the folder name is its name)
  hooks/<name>.sh        commands/<name>.md   mcp/<name>.toml
  README.md              how to subscribe
  LICENSE
  .github/workflows/kendex-check.yml   the check, on every push

Two rules worth knowing:

• A skill's identity is its directory name. A SKILL.md whose name: disagrees with its folder is a check finding.
• Executable kinds are never guessed. Hooks, commands, and MCP servers install only from a repository that declares kendex's layout (any parseable kendex.toml does) or from a plugin registry.

kendex.toml

[marketplace]
name = "my-marketplace"
description = "Skills for the whole team"
author = "Jane Doe"
license = "MIT"            # an SPDX id; omit while undecided
homepage = "https://example.com"
tags = ["rust", "review"]

# Optional: override where agents and skills live.
[catalog]
skills = ["skills", "extra-skills"]
agents = ["agents"]

# Optional: curated sets people install with one click.
[bundles.starter]
description = "Everything a new project needs"
members = ["skill/review", "agent/scout"]

Everything is optional. A missing [marketplace] table means the directory listing falls back to what GitHub knows.

What each kind needs

• Skill: skills/<name>/SKILL.md with frontmatter name (matching the folder) and description. Extra files in the folder ship with it.
• Agent: agents/<name>.md with frontmatter name and description; optional model, color, and tool allow and deny lists.
• Hook: hooks/<name>.sh with a comment header naming event (for example PreToolUse), optional matcher, and a description.
• Command: commands/<name>.md with frontmatter description.
• MCP server: mcp/<name>.toml describing the server invocation.

A description is never guessed. An empty one stays empty and is a check finding.

The check

kendex marketplace check

This validates every package the way installing validates it. Problems surface in your CI, not in someone else's install preview. The scaffolded workflow runs it on each push and pull request.

Publishing

Push the repository to GitHub, make it public, and submit it, from the app (Mine, then Submit to community) or at kendex.ai/submit. kendex.ai verifies your push authority over the repository, indexes it, and lists it. The listing follows the repository id, so renaming the repository later keeps the listing.