You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
1Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
PluginsArea: what it touches
Bug FixesKind: in v2.1.268,
Bug FixesSection of the release
What
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.
Why
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.
Since it was published
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.
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up SKILL.md, on Plugins reference.| `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-referencesee the edit
Confirmed sinceAnthropic's documentation has since written up monitors.json, on Plugins reference."monitors": "./monitors.json",plugins-referencesee the edit
How sure we are
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agreesAnthropic's documentation has since written up monitors.json, on Plugins reference.
