Neon CLI command: plugins

The plugins command installs the neon-postgres plugin into coding agents that support plugin marketplaces, so tools like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex know how to work with Neon. The plugin bundles Neon's agent skills and the Neon MCP Server in one package.

neon plugins

Install the Neon CLI with npm i -g neon@latest, or run it once with npx neon@latest plugins.

With no flags it runs an interactive walkthrough: pick the agents, then confirm. Pass flags to skip the prompts and script it. Without a terminal, pass -y to install into detected agents, or name agents with --agent.

plugins vs skills vs mcp

Use neon plugins for agents that support plugin marketplaces, where the plugin bundles skills and MCP in one. For the full setup, use neon init; for skills or the MCP server on their own, use neon skills or neon mcp.

plugins runs via npx, so it needs Node.js; without it the command stops with a message to install Node.js and retry.

Usage

neon plugins [options]

Options

Option	Description	Type	Default	Required
`--agent`, `-a`	Coding agent to install into (repeatable). Skips the agent picker. Values listed below	array	—	No
`--global`	Install user-level. Default is project	boolean	`false`	No
`--yes`, `-y`	Skip prompts. Detected agents (project folders, else the host CLI agent). --global uses installed apps, else the host CLI agent	boolean	`false`	No

Choosing agents

Without --agent, the interactive command lists the supported agents, pre-selects the ones it detects, and lets you toggle the selection. In non-interactive mode, -y installs into every detected agent. Pass --agent <name> (repeatable) to name agents explicitly and skip the picker.

The agents that support plugins are claude-code, claude-desktop, codex, cursor, github-copilot-cli, grok-build, and vscode. Several also accept aliases: claude for claude-code, grok for grok-build, and copilot, github-copilot, or vs-code for vscode. Passing an unknown agent stops the command and prints the supported list. An agent with no plugin support is skipped when others can install, or stops the command when it's the only one selected.

Agents that share a target collapse into one: Claude Desktop and Claude Code both write to claude-code, and VS Code and the GitHub Copilot CLI both write to github-copilot.

Directory vs user-level

By default plugins installs into the current project, so the setup travels with the repository. Pass --global to install user-level instead, which applies across your projects.

Some agents only support user-level plugins. In a project install, github-copilot-cli, grok-build, and vscode need --global; without it, the command tells you to pass it.

Examples

Run the interactive install:

neon plugins

Install into a specific agent, skipping every prompt:

neon plugins --agent claude-code -y

Output

Plugins
Scope    Plugin         Agent        Status
project  neon-postgres  claude-code  installed

INFO: Installed the Neon plugin (project).

Install into several agents at once:

neon plugins --agent cursor --agent claude-code

Install non-interactively into every detected agent:

neon plugins -y

Install user-level so the plugin applies across your projects, including agents that only support user-level plugins:

neon plugins --global