# AGENTS.md vs Claude & Codex Plugins

AGENTS.md records 245,457 monthly visits with +5.7% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. Claude & Codex Plugins records 0 monthly visits with 0% growth and Free pricing.

| Metric | [AGENTS.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/agents-md) | [Claude & Codex Plugins](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-codex-plugins) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://agents.md | https://claudecodexplugins.com |
| Categories | AI Agent, AI Code Assistant, AI Developer Tools | AI Agent, AI Code Assistant, AI Code Generator, AI Developer Tools |
| Pricing Model | Free | Free |
| Monthly Visits | 245,457 | 0 |
| MoM Growth Rate | +5.7% | 0% |
| Primary Market | United States | Global |
| Direct Visits | 156,868 | 0 |
| Review Score | 4.7 | 4.4 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## AGENTS.md

AGENTS.md solves a very concrete problem: AI coding agents need operational context — how to install dependencies, run the dev server, execute tests, and respect project conventions — but stuffing all of that into a README makes the README worse for human contributors. AGENTS.md gives that guidance its own dedicated file, written in plain Markdown with no required schema, so agents find it reliably while READMEs stay short and human-friendly.

Because it is just Markdown, there is nothing to install and no proprietary tooling to adopt. You add an AGENTS.md at the repository root, list the sections that matter for your project, and agents that support the convention read it automatically. In large monorepos you can place additional AGENTS.md files inside subpackages; agents read the nearest file in the directory tree, so the closest one wins and each package can ship tailored instructions.

The format emerged from collaboration across the AI developer ecosystem — including OpenAI Codex, Amp, Google's Jules, Cursor and Factory — and is now stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation. It is used by over 60,000 open-source projects and supported by a long list of agents including Codex, Jules, Aider, goose, opencode, Zed, Warp, VS Code, Devin, Amp, Cursor, RooCode, Gemini CLI, Kilo Code and GitHub Copilot.

**Pricing & Plans:** AGENTS.md is completely free and open. There is no paid tier, no account and no commercial product attached to the format.

- **Plain Markdown, no schema:** There are no required fields or special syntax. Use any headings you like and the agent parses the text you provide.
- **Cross-agent compatibility:** One AGENTS.md works across dozens of coding agents such as Codex, Cursor, Jules, Aider, Gemini CLI, Zed and Copilot.
- **Nested files for monorepos:** Drop extra AGENTS.md files into subpackages; agents read the nearest file in the directory tree, so local instructions take precedence.
- **Separation from README:** Keeps human-facing READMEs concise while giving agents the build, test and convention details they actually need.
- **Community-governed open format:** Stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, with no vendor lock-in.

**Strengths:** Zero setup: it is just a Markdown file, no SDK or account needed; Works consistently across a large and growing set of coding agents; Nested support makes it practical for large monorepos; Governed by a neutral foundation, so no single vendor controls it

**Limitations:** Agents vary in how fully they honor the instructions they read; Without discipline it can drift out of date like any documentation; No formal schema means structure differs substantially between projects

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/agents-md.md)

## Claude & Codex Plugins

Claude & Codex Plugins solves a very practical problem for people who live inside agentic coding CLIs: discovering what is actually installable. Rather than a hand-curated editorial list that goes stale, the site sweeps GitHub every day looking for repositories that expose a `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json`, `.claude-plugin/plugin.json`, `.codex-plugin/plugin.json` or `.agents/plugins/marketplace.json` manifest, then reads those manifests exactly the way Claude Code and Codex read them. The result is a large, machine-verified catalog — currently hundreds of thousands of plugins drawn from tens of thousands of marketplaces — sorted by stars, trend and category.

Each plugin page focuses on the two things developers actually need before typing a command: the precise install lines for both Claude Code and Codex, and an honest inventory of what gets added to the agent. That inventory breaks down into skills, slash commands, subagents, hooks and MCP servers, so you can see at a glance whether a plugin is a lightweight prompt pack or something that starts local processes and fires event hooks. Because plugins can execute code, that transparency matters.

The site is built by the team behind AI Architectures and is explicitly unaffiliated with Anthropic and OpenAI. It is free to browse and free to submit a repo — pasting a GitHub URL triggers an instant manifest check that reports anything that would break an install, making it useful for plugin authors as well as consumers.

**Pricing & Plans:** Free to browse, search and use. Submitting or checking a plugin repository is also free. The site is operated commercially through an optional featured/paid listing program and a related cloud desktop product, but no fee is required to view the catalog or list a plugin.

- **Daily GitHub manifest sweep:** The index is rebuilt every day by scanning public repositories for Claude Code and Codex plugin manifests, so new releases appear without anyone hand-editing a list.
- **Copy-ready install commands:** Every plugin page shows the exact two-line install sequence for both `claude plugin` and `codex plugin`, including the marketplace add step.
- **Full contents disclosure:** Each listing enumerates the skills, slash commands, subagents, hooks and MCP servers it installs, so you know what will run inside your agent before you commit.
- **Instant manifest checker:** Paste a public GitHub repo and the site validates its manifest the way the CLIs do, flagging problems that would break installation.
- **Sorting by stars, trend and category:** Browse by popularity, weekly trending or categories like productivity, development, security, design and research to find relevant plugins quickly.

**Strengths:** Catalog is generated from real GitHub manifests rather than editorial picks, so it stays current and verifiable; Shows install commands for both Claude Code and Codex side by side; Discloses hooks and MCP servers, which is the information that matters for safety; Free to browse and free to submit, with an immediate manifest validation on submit

**Limitations:** Coverage depends entirely on repos being public and correctly structured, so private or malformed plugins never appear; The sheer volume of listed plugins can be overwhelming without narrowing by category or star count; Star counts dominate the default rankings, which can bury useful but niche plugins

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-codex-plugins.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do AGENTS.md and Claude & Codex Plugins compare in monthly traffic?

AGENTS.md has 245,457 monthly visits, while Claude & Codex Plugins has 0. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

AGENTS.md has a month-over-month growth rate of +5.7%; Claude & Codex Plugins has 0%.

### How does pricing compare?

AGENTS.md: Free. AGENTS.md is completely free and open. There is no paid tier, no account and no commercial product attached to the format. Claude & Codex Plugins: Free. Free to browse, search and use. Submitting or checking a plugin repository is also free. The site is operated commercially through an optional featured/paid listing program and a related cloud desktop product, but no fee is required to view the catalog or list a plugin.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Cursor](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor) | 23,297,751 | +8.4% | Freemium | An AI-native code editor that natively reads project rules and markdown instructions to guide its coding agent. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor.md) |
| 2 | [Google Antigravity](https://openaitools.app/tool/google-antigravity) | 16,054,109 | +8.1% | Freemium | Provides an agentic development platform for parallel coding agents, but requires platform tooling rather than standard markdown files. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/google-antigravity.md) |
| 3 | [VS Code](https://openaitools.app/tool/vs-code) | 7,397,370 | -3.8% | Freemium | An extensible code editor supporting various AI assistant extensions, requiring manual setup rather than a universal agent file format. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/vs-code.md) |
| 4 | [Skillry](https://openaitools.app/tool/skillry) | 535,817 | +1,762.1% | Freemium | Supplies pre-packaged agent skills and instructions, but focuses on modular workflow templates rather than standard repository documentation files. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/skillry.md) |
| 5 | [SkillsMP — Agent Skills Marketplace](https://openaitools.app/tool/agent-skills-marketplace) | 470,744 | -3.7% | Free | Search and study millions of public SKILL.md agent skills | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/agent-skills-marketplace.md) |
| 6 | [mcp.so](https://openaitools.app/tool/mcp-server) | 286,704 | -3% | Free | Discover and share Model Context Protocol servers for AI agents and coding tools | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/mcp-server.md) |
| 7 | [AI Agent Store](https://openaitools.app/tool/ai-agent-store) | 169,388 | -5.4% | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid | Marketplace to find, hire, or build AI agents for real work | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/ai-agent-store.md) |
| 8 | [Cursor Directory](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor-directory) | 125,466 | +5.3% | Free | Community plugin, rule, and MCP server hub for Cursor | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor-directory.md) |
| 9 | [InfraBase.ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/infrabase-ai) | 39,072 | -13.6% | Free | Hand-verified directory of AI infrastructure tools | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/infrabase-ai.md) |
| 10 | [All GPTs](https://openaitools.app/tool/all-gpts) | 32,569 | +9.3% | Free | A curated directory of 30,000+ custom GPTs and AI agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/all-gpts.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/agents-md-vs-claude-codex-plugins

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