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Joomla Skill for Claude

A skill for building Joomla 5+ and Joomla 6 extensions — components, modules, plugins, and templates — using modern MVC architecture, PSR-4 namespaces, dependency injection, and service providers.

Works with Claude Code (as a plugin) and with Claude.ai (as an uploadable Skill).

What this skill covers

  • Scaffolding new components, modules, plugins, and templates
  • Writing services/provider.php service providers
  • MVC layer: controllers, models, views, layouts
  • Manifest XML files (<extension>, install/uninstall scripts)
  • Database migrations and schema files
  • Language files (INI) and translation patterns
  • Custom form fields and form rules
  • Plugin event subscribers (SubscriberInterface)
  • Module dispatchers
  • Web Asset Manager (WAM) — registering CSS/JS, dependencies, attributes
  • Backward-compatible patterns (Joomla 5 → 6, no compat plugin required)

Reference files in skills/joomla/references/ provide deep-dive guidance for each extension type:

  • component.md — full component scaffolding (frontend + backend)
  • module.md — module structure with dispatchers
  • plugin.md — plugin event subscribers
  • library.md — shared library packages

Requirements

  • Joomla: 5.x or 6.x (target: native 6, backward compatible with 5)
  • PHP: 8.2+ (Joomla 6 minimum), 8.3+ recommended
  • Coding standard: PSR-12 (PHP), Joomla ESLint config (JavaScript)

Installation

There are three install paths depending on which Claude product you use.

Option 1 — Claude Code plugin (recommended for Claude Code users)

Inside Claude Code (CLI, desktop app, or IDE extension):

/plugin marketplace add Joomla-Bible-Study/claude-skill-joomla
/plugin install joomla@joomla-bible-study
/reload-plugins

The skill becomes available as joomla:joomla and updates with /plugin update.

Option 2 — Claude.ai consumer app (web, Mac, Windows desktop)

The Claude.ai chat app does not load Claude Code plugins, but it does support uploading skills as a zip file.

  1. Open the latest release.
  2. Download the joomla-skill-vX.Y.Z.zip asset.
  3. In Claude.ai, go to Settings → Capabilities (or in the desktop app: profile menu → Settings → Capabilities).
  4. Find the Skills section and choose Create skill / Upload skill.
  5. Drop in the zip. Claude reads the name and description from SKILL.md's frontmatter.
  6. Toggle the skill on for any Project (or globally) where you want it active.

To get the most out of the skill in Claude.ai, enable the Code execution / Analysis tool for the conversation so Claude can generate scaffolded files as downloadable artifacts. Pair it with a Project that holds your component source for richer context.

Option 3 — Manual copy into ~/.claude/skills/ (Claude Code, no plugin)

If you'd rather not use the plugin system:

git clone https://github.com/Joomla-Bible-Study/claude-skill-joomla.git
cp -R claude-skill-joomla/skills/joomla ~/.claude/skills/

Or symlink so updates flow in with git pull:

ln -s "$PWD/claude-skill-joomla/skills/joomla" ~/.claude/skills/joomla

Usage

Once installed, the skill activates automatically whenever you mention Joomla extension development. Trigger phrases include:

  • "Add a new view to my Joomla component"
  • "Create a Joomla 5 plugin that listens for onContentAfterSave"
  • "Scaffold a module that displays..."
  • "Set up a service provider for..."

You can also invoke it explicitly: ask Claude to "use the joomla skill" for any Joomla-based project.

Project context

This skill is maintained by Christian Web Ministries (org currently published as Joomla-Bible-Study on GitHub) and was developed alongside production Joomla extensions including:

Patterns are derived from the joomla-cms core and real-world production components. The skill's ## Canonical sources section in skills/joomla/SKILL.md lists every upstream reference (joomla-cms, manual.joomla.org + its joomla/Manual source repo, api.joomla.org, framework.joomla.org) Claude consults when verifying patterns — and the fallback order when WebFetch is unavailable.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for:

  • what kinds of contributions are most useful (bug reports, API drift, new patterns/references)
  • how to test changes locally before opening a PR (symlink as a skill, install as a plugin, or upload zip to Claude.ai)
  • authoring guidelines for SKILL.md and references (frontmatter is load-bearing — be deliberate)
  • versioning, CHANGELOG expectations, and the release flow

Quick rule of thumb: if you spot a Joomla 6 API change or an outdated pattern, file an issue with the prompt + the bad response and we'll work from there.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — matching the Joomla ecosystem.