Kimi Code CLI Spec (Plugins and Skills)

Last verified: 2026-06-24

Primary sources

https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/kimi-code-cli/customization/plugins.html
https://www.kimi.com/code/docs/en/kimi-code-cli/customization/agents.html

Plugin manifests

Kimi Code CLI plugins are directories or zip files with a manifest at one of:

<plugin_root>/kimi.plugin.json
<plugin_root>/.kimi-plugin/plugin.json

When both exist, kimi.plugin.json takes precedence. Compound Engineering uses .kimi-plugin/plugin.json to match the repo's other platform-specific manifest directories.

Supported fields include:

Field	CE usage
`name`	Required plugin id, set to `compound-engineering`
`version`	Root plugin version, bumped by release-please
`description`, `keywords`, `author`, `homepage`, `license`	Shared display metadata
`interface.displayName`	Marketplace/plugin manager display name
`interface.shortDescription`	Short plugin-manager copy
`interface.longDescription`	Longer plugin-manager copy
`interface.developerName`	Human-readable developer name
`interface.websiteURL`	Repository URL
`skills`	`./skills/`, resolved inside the plugin root

CE does not currently declare sessionStart.skill, skillInstructions, or mcpServers for Kimi. Unsupported runtime fields such as tools, commands, hooks, apps, inject, and configFile are diagnostics-only in Kimi and should not be used for CE behavior.

Marketplace catalog

Kimi also supports a custom marketplace JSON source. The catalog schema uses:

{
  "version": "2",
  "plugins": [
    {
      "id": "compound-engineering",
      "displayName": "Compound Engineering",
      "source": "https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin"
    }
  ]
}

The marketplace catalog has no release-owned metadata.version equivalent. Treat .kimi-plugin/marketplace.json as static parity data, not a separate release component. release:validate checks that its plugin ids match the Claude marketplace plugin names and that entries use installable sources.

Install commands

Direct install from GitHub:

/plugins install https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin

Marketplace browsing:

/plugins marketplace https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin/main/.kimi-plugin/marketplace.json

After installing, enabling, disabling, or removing a plugin, Kimi requires /reload or a new session for changes to apply.

Instruction files

Kimi uses AGENTS.md for global and project instructions, not a KIMI.md file.

Documented locations include:

Scope	Location
Global Kimi-specific	`$KIMI_CODE_HOME/AGENTS.md`, defaulting to `~/.kimi-code/AGENTS.md`
Generic cross-tool	`~/.agents/AGENTS.md`
Project	`.kimi-code/AGENTS.md` or `AGENTS.md` under the project tree

This repo should not add a root KIMI.md compatibility shim unless Kimi documents support for that filename. The existing root AGENTS.md is already the canonical project instruction file for Kimi-compatible project context.

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