You'll noticeTier: how much it should matter to you
2Useful: my rating, 1 to 5
1Signal: worth watching, 1 to 5
PluginsArea: what it touches
ImprovementsKind: in v2.1.288,
ImprovementsSection of the release
What
Plugins can declare options, called userConfig, that you set yourself, and the plugin refers to them with placeholders written as ${user_config.<name>}. Before, if Claude Code filled in one of those placeholders and you had not set that option, it always stopped with an error telling you the option isn't set and to open /plugin to configure it.
The step that fills in placeholders now has a second mode. In that mode an unset option is left as its placeholder text and no error is raised. The default has not changed: unless a part of Claude Code asks for the new mode, an unset option still produces the same error.
Why
Some parts of Claude Code only need to show or check a plugin's settings. With this mode they can do that without failing just because you have not filled in every option yet.
