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
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.283,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
installed_plugins.json is the file where Claude Code keeps its list of installed plugins. Claude Code now runs a check on this file when migrating it and before saving it.
Migration: when the new file cannot be checked, the older installed_plugins_v2.json is no longer renamed over it. Before, that rename always happened.
Old cache cleanup: when installed_plugins.json could not be read, Claude Code skips cleaning up leftover plugin folders, because it cannot tell which ones are still in use. Before, cleanup ran regardless.
Some failures to load the file are no longer reported as errors.
Why
This guards against losing data. Before, if the plugin list was unreadable or corrupt, plugin folders that were still in use could be deleted during cleanup.
How sure we are
Something disagreesSomething we can check disagrees with this entry, or the writer said they could not settle it.
The writer flagged doubtExactly what the new check tests in the file is not stated.
Anthropic's release notes agreeFixed installed_plugins.json showing no plugins when it holds a record under an invalid plugin id; such a file loads again
