The Claude Code SPECLAN Plugin

If you prefer the speed of your terminal over point-and-click editors, the SPECLAN Plugin for Claude Code is built for you.

It brings the full power of SPECLAN into your Claude Code session -- create goals, draft features, write requirements, navigate the hierarchy, transition statuses, and search across your entire specification tree. All through natural language. No window switching. No context breaks.

You stay in the flow. Claude does the heavy lifting.

What You Get

The plugin gives Claude Code deep knowledge of SPECLAN's specification model and the skills to operate on it:

Create goals, features, requirements, scenarios, acceptance criteria, and tests by describing what you need
Read any entity by ID, by name, or by browsing the tree
Update titles, descriptions, statuses, owners, and acceptance criteria
Navigate the full hierarchy -- parent chains, child trees, sibling features
Search across your entire spec repository by keyword, status, type, or owner
Transition entities through the lifecycle: draft, review, approved, in-development, under-test, released, deprecated
Manage change requests for locked entities that are already in development or beyond
Assign features to goals and manage templates

Every operation produces the same Markdown files with YAML frontmatter that the VS Code Extension reads. There is no format difference -- the plugin and the extension work on the same files. Switch between them freely.

Installation

The plugin is distributed through the cc-marketplace. Installation takes two commands.

Quick Install (Two Commands)

/plugin marketplace add thlandgraf/cc-marketplace
/plugin install speclan@digital-dividend-marketplace

That is it. The plugin's skills and agents are available immediately -- no restart needed.

Interactive Install (Plugin Manager UI)

If you prefer browsing the plugin manager:

Run /plugin in Claude Code
Go to the Marketplaces tab (use arrow keys or Tab to cycle)
Select + Add Marketplace
When prompted for the marketplace source, enter: thlandgraf/cc-marketplace
Go to the Discover tab
Find speclan in the list
Select it and choose your installation scope (User, Project, or Local)

Adding the marketplace is a one-time setup. After that, you can always find and manage the plugin from the Discover and Installed tabs.

See Discover and install plugins for details on how marketplaces work.

Choosing a Scope

When installing, you pick where the plugin lives:

Scope	What It Means
User (default)	Available in every project you open. Good for personal use.
Project	Shared with everyone who works on this repository. Stored in `.claude/settings.json`. Good for teams.
Local	Available only to you, only in this repository. Good for trying things out.

For most users, the default User scope is the right choice -- you want SPECLAN available wherever you work.

Working With the Plugin

Once installed, you interact with SPECLAN the way you interact with everything in Claude Code: by asking.

Creating Specifications

Describe what you want, and Claude creates the spec:

Create a new feature under F-1234 called "User Notification Preferences"
with a description about letting users choose how they receive notifications.

Claude creates the Markdown file in the right directory, generates a collision-free ID, and fills in the frontmatter. You can review the result and refine it in the same conversation.

This works for every entity type. Ask for a goal, a feature, a requirement -- Claude knows the hierarchy and places things correctly.

Navigating the Hierarchy

Ask Claude to show you the shape of your project:

Show me the feature tree under G-001

What requirements belong to F-5678?

Trace the ancestry of R-2345 back to its goal

Claude reads the specification files and presents the hierarchy in a clear, readable format.

Transitioning Statuses

Move specifications through their lifecycle:

Transition F-5678 to review

Move all draft requirements under F-1234 to review status

The plugin enforces the same lifecycle rules as the VS Code Extension. You cannot skip statuses, and locked entities (in-development and beyond) require change requests.

Searching

Find things fast:

Show me all features in approved status

Find requirements that mention "authentication"

List all entities owned by alice@example.com

Managing Change Requests

When a specification is locked (in-development, under-test, or released), direct edits are not allowed. Create a change request instead:

Create a change request for R-2345 to add a new acceptance criterion
about handling timeout errors

The plugin respects the same business rules as the rest of SPECLAN -- no shortcuts, no workarounds.

Why Use the Plugin Instead of the VS Code Extension?

You do not have to choose. The plugin and the extension work on the same files. Many users use both.

But if your workflow already lives in Claude Code -- if you are writing code, running tests, committing changes, and reviewing diffs in the terminal -- switching to a WYSIWYG editor just to update a spec breaks your rhythm.

With the plugin, specification work becomes part of your conversation. You can draft a requirement, implement it, and transition its status to in-development without ever leaving Claude Code. The round-trip from spec to code to status update happens in one place.

This is especially powerful when you are in the middle of implementation. You are reading a spec, writing code, and you notice the acceptance criteria are missing a case. Instead of opening a different tool, you say:

Create a change request for R-2345 to add an acceptance criterion:
"The system returns a 429 status when the rate limit is exceeded"

Done. Back to coding.

Keeping the Plugin Updated

The cc-marketplace supports auto-updates. When enabled, Claude Code checks for new plugin versions at startup and updates automatically.

To toggle auto-updates:

Run /plugin in Claude Code
Go to the Marketplaces tab
Select digital-dividend-marketplace
Choose Enable auto-update or Disable auto-update

You can also manually update at any time:

/plugin marketplace update digital-dividend-marketplace

Troubleshooting

Plugin skills not appearing after install: Clear the plugin cache and restart Claude Code:

rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/cache

Then reinstall the plugin.

/plugin command not recognized: Make sure you are running Claude Code version 1.0.33 or later. Run claude --version to check.

Plugin not finding your specifications: The plugin operates on the speclan/ directory in your current project. Make sure you are in a project directory that has been initialized with SPECLAN.