TalkOps Framework›Extensibility & Add-ons

Plugins and marketplaces

Install plugins from marketplaces or package subagents, skills, MCP servers, and hooks for TalkOps

Plugins extend TalkOps (talkops) with reusable subagents, skills, MCP servers, custom commands, and hooks. Marketplaces provide catalogs for discovering and installing plugins across projects or teams. TalkOps connects out of the box to the official TalkOps DevOps Plugin Marketplace (talkops-ai/devops-plugins) and supports private enterprise marketplaces, as described in Create a plugin and Create a marketplace.

Install plugins and marketplaces only from sources you trust. An enabled plugin can add instructions and run MCP servers, hook commands, or custom subagents with your user permissions.

Plugin types

TalkOps categorizes plugins into three types based on their package contents:

Type	What it adds	How it binds	Examples
Agent plugins	Dedicated specialist subagent with domain skills and isolated MCP servers	Binds to the dedicated subagent with `SubagentMemoryStore` isolation	`aws-sre-agent`, `aws-finops-agent`, `aws-iac-engineer`
Vertical plugins	Domain skill packs and lifecycle hooks (no separate subagent)	Binds directly to the root orchestrator	`aws-networking`, `aws-containers`, `aws-cost-optimization`
Partner plugins	Official third-party vendor integrations bundling tools and skills	Binds to the root agent or designated subagent	HashiCorp Terraform skill collection

TalkOps detects plugin types automatically: if a plugin package contains an agents/ directory, it registers as an agent plugin; otherwise, its skills and hooks attach directly to the main orchestrator.

TalkOps DevOps Plugin Marketplace

The talkops-ai/devops-plugins marketplace provides 40 production-grade plugins across 17 specialist AWS sub-agents, 21 vertical capability bundles (245 skills, 109 slash commands), and 2 partner-built plugins. See the complete TalkOps Plugins Marketplace documentation for the full catalog, safety hooks, IAM guardrails, and 62-server MCP coverage matrix:

aws-finops-agent: Audits cloud spend, identifies unattached EBS volumes and idle NAT Gateways, analyzes Compute Savings Plans, and generates cost-optimization diffs.
aws-sre-agent: Investigates CloudWatch alarms, correlates X-Ray traces, filters log streams, and diagnoses incident root causes.
aws-iac-engineer: Architects, validates, and refactors AWS CDK, CloudFormation, OpenTofu, and Terraform infrastructure.
aws-cloud-security-engineer: Reviews IAM policies for least privilege, triages Security Hub and GuardDuty findings, and validates KMS encryption.
aws-database-engineer: Tunes RDS/Aurora parameter groups, analyzes slow queries, and configures DynamoDB scaling policies.
aws-platform-engineer: Manages EKS clusters, VPC network topologies, AWS Load Balancer Controller, and Karpenter autoscaling.

Manage plugins interactively

To browse marketplaces and manage plugins in an talkops session:

Run /plugins to open the plugin manager modal.
Open the Marketplaces tab to browse or add marketplace sources. Supported sources include:
- A GitHub repository in owner/repo format (for example, talkops-ai/devops-plugins), optionally followed by @branch-or-tag.
- An HTTPS Git repository URL, optionally followed by #branch-or-tag.
- An HTTPS URL that serves a marketplace.json catalog file.
- A local marketplace directory or JSON file.
Select a plugin from the catalog to inspect its description, bundled subagents, skills, and MCP tools, then click Install.
Run /reload to activate newly installed plugin subagents, skills, MCP servers, and hooks without restarting the session.

The plugin manager also lets you enable, disable, and uninstall installed plugins. Disabling a plugin keeps it installed on disk under ~/.talkops/plugins/ but excludes its subagents, skills, MCP servers, and hooks after you run /reload or start a new session.

Manage plugins from the command line

Use talkops plugin for scripts and terminal-based administration:

# Add and inspect a marketplace
talkops plugin marketplace add talkops-ai/devops-plugins
talkops plugin marketplace list
talkops plugin marketplace refresh

# Install specialist subagents and vertical skill packs
talkops plugin install aws-sre-agent
talkops plugin install aws-finops-agent
talkops plugin install aws-networking

# List installed plugins and status
talkops plugin list

# Change plugin state
talkops plugin disable aws-finops-agent
talkops plugin enable aws-finops-agent

# Uninstall a plugin
talkops plugin uninstall aws-finops-agent

After installing or toggling a plugin from the shell, run /reload in an active interactive session or start a new session.

Create a plugin

An TalkOps plugin is a directory containing a plugin.json manifest and any combination of agents/, skills/, .mcp.json, commands/, or hooks/.

Agent plugin vs. vertical plugin directory layout

Agent plugin structure (bundles a dedicated subagent with isolated memory and MCP servers):

aws-finops-agent/
├── plugin.json                # Plugin metadata, dependencies, author
├── agents/
│   └── aws-finops-agent.md    # Subagent definition (YAML frontmatter + prompt)
├── skills/
│   ├── aws-cost-optimization/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   └── aws-billing-audit/
│       └── SKILL.md
└── .mcp.json                  # Isolated MCP servers scoped to this subagent

Vertical plugin structure (bundles skills and hooks directly on the main agent):

aws-networking/
├── plugin.json
└── skills/
    ├── vpc-design/
    │   └── SKILL.md
    └── transit-gateway-routing/
        └── SKILL.md

Define the plugin manifest (`plugin.json`)

Place plugin.json at the plugin root to declare metadata, dependencies, subagents, skills, and MCP servers:

{
  "name": "aws-finops-agent",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "Autonomous cloud financial management and cost optimization agent",
  "author": "TalkOps AI",
  "homepage": "https://github.com/talkops-ai/devops-plugins",
  "dependencies": [],
  "subagents": ["aws-finops-agent"],
  "skills": ["aws-cost-optimization", "aws-billing-audit"],
  "mcp_servers": {
    "aws-cost": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["aws-cost-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Add subagents, skills, and MCP servers

Subagents: Place Markdown definitions with YAML frontmatter under agents/. See Subagents for the frontmatter schema.
Skills: Organize each skill as a directory under skills/ containing SKILL.md. See Memory and skills.
MCP servers: Define servers in .mcp.json or under mcp_servers in plugin.json. For agent plugins, these MCP servers launch on demand when the subagent runs and stay scoped to that subagent. See MCP tools.

Create a marketplace

A marketplace is a repository or directory containing a marketplace.json catalog that lists available plugins and their source locations:

{
  "name": "talkops-devops-plugins",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "aws-sre-agent",
      "source": "./plugins/aws-sre-agent",
      "description": "CloudWatch log analysis, X-Ray trace correlation, and incident diagnosis"
    },
    {
      "name": "aws-finops-agent",
      "source": "./plugins/aws-finops-agent",
      "description": "Cloud spend audits, idle resource discovery, and Savings Plans analysis"
    }
  ]
}

Test a local marketplace by adding its directory and installing a plugin:

talkops plugin marketplace add ./my-marketplace
talkops plugin install aws-sre-agent

Plugin types​

TalkOps DevOps Plugin Marketplace​

Manage plugins interactively​

Manage plugins from the command line​

Create a plugin​

Define the plugin manifest (plugin.json)​

Add subagents, skills, and MCP servers​

Create a marketplace​

See also​