What
After a background auto-update, Claude Code tries to re-resolve plugin commands in the running session. The notification now says "reloaded for this session", or "reloaded with errors — see /plugin", and only falls back to the old "Run /reload-plugins to apply" when the reload was skipped or failed.
Details
- Reload is skipped when it would invalidate caches; failures fall back rather than leaving the session in a half-updated state.
- Plugins held at a fixed version report as blocked by the pin instead of updating.
- Outcomes counted under
plugin_command_reresolve_reloadwith reasonscache_impact,load_errorsandrefresh_failed.
Evidence
plugin-autoupdate-reloaded, reloaded with errors — see /plugin
Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.
Names in the bundle/reload-plugins/plugin
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Added since
A small documentation edit on Push events into a running session with channels touched a line naming /reload-plugins after this was published.
When the install asks for an installation scope, choose the user scope option so the plugin is available across all your projects. Check the install summary: if it reports `Run /reload-plugins to activate.`, see [Apply plugin changes witho…channels see the edit
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /reload-plugins, on Claude Code changelog.
* Improved `/plugin`: installing, enabling or disabling a plugin now takes effect when you close the menu; `/reload-plugins` is no longer needed afterwardschangelog see the edit
Added since
A small documentation edit on Create and distribute a plugin marketplace touched a line naming /plugin after this was published.
Paths resolve relative to the marketplace root, which is the directory containing `.claude-plugin/`. In the example above, `./plugins/my-plugin` points to `<repo>/plugins/my-plugin`, even though `marketplace.json` lives at `<repo>/.claude-…plugin-marketplaces see the edit
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /plugin, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.
| `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` | **Required.** Plugin manifest (name, description, version). Directories without this file are ignored. |third-party/claude-desktop/extensions see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /plugin, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.