What
Loading a plugin from a path now resolves a metadata bundle rather than just a server id, copying an installation preference onto the plugin and registering its name and repository against a marketplace when one is known. Surfaces only in /plugin bookkeeping.
Evidence
Loaded inline plugin from path:
Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.
Names in the bundle/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 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
Two sources agreeTwo things we can check say the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
Anthropic's documentation has since written up /plugin, on MCP, plugins, skills, and hooks.
Anthropic's release notes agree
Fixed plugin skills whose frontmatter name already includes the <plugin>: prefix showing it doubled in the slash menu (e.g…