Plugin loading now reports unreadable SKILL.md or monitors.json paths instead of treating them as missing
When Claude Code checks whether a plugin has a SKILL.md or monitors.json file, it previously used a simple yes/no check. Now it uses a three-way check: present, absent, or unknown (for example, when a permission error prevents checking). When the state can't be determined, Claude Code now logs a message noting the plugin and path that could not be checked and records a path-not-found diagnostic, rather than silently treating it as if the file didn't exist.
This makes it clearer when a plugin fails to load because of a permissions or filesystem problem, rather than looking like the plugin simply doesn't have that file, matching how hooks.json loading already behaved.
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.
| `skills` | string\|array | Custom skill directories containing `<name>/SKILL.md`. Adds to the default `skills/` scan. See [Path behavior rules](#path-behavior-rules) for the marketplace-root exception | `"./custom/skills/"` |plugins-reference see the edit
"monitors": "./monitors.json",plugins-reference see the edit
Anthropic's documentation has since written up monitors.json, on Plugins reference.