{"version":"2.1.286","anchor":"early-plugins-sync-step-in-startup","canonical_anchor":"early-plugin-sync-for-remote-ccr-sessions-behind-an-env-v","heading":"Early plugin sync at startup for remote sessions, behind an environment variable","tier":"use","area":"Plugins","scope":null,"heads_up":null,"url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.286\/e\/early-plugins-sync-step-in-startup","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.286","markdown":"### Early plugin sync at startup for remote sessions, behind an environment variable\n\nA new early plugin sync step at startup runs only when CLAUDE_CODE_CCR_EARLY_PLUGINS_SYNC is set, and not in interactive sessions or with a proxy auth helper\n\n**Unclear.** It is not clear what the startup check tests or what the early plugin sync marker causes Claude Code to do.\n\n**What**\n\nClaude Code has a new step that syncs plugins (add-ons that extend Claude Code) early in startup, before the normal startup path. It appears aimed at remote sessions, which the members call CCR (Claude Code sessions that run on a hosted machine rather than your own computer).\n\n- The step does nothing unless the environment variable `CLAUDE_CODE_CCR_EARLY_PLUGINS_SYNC` is set. An environment variable is a named setting passed to a program when it starts.\n\n- It also does nothing in interactive sessions, where you type to Claude Code directly.\n\n- It is skipped when a proxy auth helper is configured. A proxy auth helper is a program that supplies sign-in details for a network proxy, switched on with `CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROXY_AUTH_HELPER`.\n\n- When the early sync runs, Claude Code records an `early_plugins_sync` marker in its logs.\n\n- `CLAUDE_CODE_CCR_EARLY_PLUGINS_SYNC` was added to two lists of environment variables that Claude Code passes on to the processes it starts, so the setting reaches spawned or remote processes.\n\n**Why**\n\nThis can change when plugins are ready during startup, but only for a process that has `CLAUDE_CODE_CCR_EARLY_PLUGINS_SYNC` set. Without that variable, startup works as before.\n\n- Area: Plugins\n- Names: `CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROXY_AUTH_HELPER`\n- Tier: Use it now\n- Useful: 5\/5\n- Signal: 3\/5"}