diff --git a/platformio/package/manifest/parser.py b/platformio/package/manifest/parser.py
index 193fbde1..86c98587 100644
--- a/platformio/package/manifest/parser.py
+++ b/platformio/package/manifest/parser.py
@@ -641,6 +641,8 @@ class PackageJsonManifestParser(BaseManifestParser):
 
     def parse(self, contents):
         data = json.loads(contents)
+        if "keywords" in data:
+            data["keywords"] = self.str_to_list(data["keywords"], sep=",")
         data = self._parse_system(data)
         data = self._parse_homepage(data)
         return data
diff --git a/tests/package/test_manifest.py b/tests/package/test_manifest.py
index 332cb7b5..0c89e012 100644
--- a/tests/package/test_manifest.py
+++ b/tests/package/test_manifest.py
@@ -627,6 +627,7 @@ def test_package_json_schema():
 {
     "name": "tool-scons",
     "description": "SCons software construction tool",
+    "keywords": "SCons, build",
     "url": "http://www.scons.org",
     "version": "3.30101.0"
 }
@@ -642,6 +643,7 @@ def test_package_json_schema():
         {
             "name": "tool-scons",
             "description": "SCons software construction tool",
+            "keywords": ["scons", "build"],
             "homepage": "http://www.scons.org",
             "version": "3.30101.0",
         },