Skills in ~/.claude/skills/ not being discovered and cached skills show old content

[Fabiorfonseca]

Description

Custom skills placed in ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md are not being discovered by Claude Code, and existing skills show cached content instead of reading from the SKILL.md files.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.x (latest)
• OS: macOS Darwin 24.6.0
• Shell: zsh

Steps to Reproduce

Problem 1: New skills not discovered

1. Create a new skill directory:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/test-skill
cat > ~/.claude/skills/test-skill/SKILL.md << 'SKILL'
---
name: test-skill
description: Test skill
---
# Test
This is a test skill.
SKILL

2. Restart Claude Code (exit and re-enter)
3. Type /test-skill - it shows "Unknown slash command"

Problem 2: Existing skills show cached content

1. Skills that were created previously (like /loki) appear in autocomplete
2. Edit the SKILL.md file to change content (e.g., change version from v7.1.0 to v7.2.0)
3. Restart Claude Code
4. Execute the skill - it still shows the OLD content (v7.1.0)
5. The autocomplete description updates correctly, but the content loaded is from cache

Expected Behavior

1. Skills in ~/.claude/skills/ should be automatically discovered
2. When SKILL.md is edited, the new content should be loaded (not cached content)

Actual Behavior

1. New skills are not recognized - "Unknown slash command"
2. Existing skills load cached content from userSettings instead of reading SKILL.md
3. The skill description in autocomplete comes from SKILL.md, but the actual content comes from internal cache

Additional Context

• The SKILL.md files have correct structure with YAML frontmatter
• File permissions are correct (-rw-r--r--)
• Tried restarting Claude Code multiple times
• The cached content appears to be stored in userSettings (shown as Path: userSettings:skillname)

Workaround Attempted

• Created skills with different names (doesn't work - not discovered)
• Deleted and recreated skill directories (doesn't work)
• Killed all Claude processes (doesn't work)

Questions

1. Is there a way to clear the skill cache?
2. How are skills supposed to be registered if not by creating SKILL.md files?
3. Is there a command to refresh/reload skills?

---

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[do-roemer]

Running into the same problem. /plugin -> Installed -> Choose Skill/Plugin -> Update now; doesn't do anything either

[steerben]

Same behaviour.
Custom skills are not loaded via plugins. Old ones from e.g. official market place work.
Caches have been deleted.

[takuan-osho]

I am experiencing exactly the same symptoms.

• Claude Code version: 2.1.29
• OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2
• Shell: zsh

[Julesssss]

I can also reproduce. The fix in 2.1.29 appears to work for plugin skills but user-level skills (~/.claude/skills/) still have the same issue.

Environment:

• Claude Code 2.1.29
• Running via claude-code-action v1.0.41 (SDK)

Reproduction:

1. Place skills in ~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md with proper frontmatter
2. Skills appear in slash_commands array in init output
3. Skills do NOT appear in <available_skills> context
4. Claude reports it cannot see the skills

Output shows skills are discovered:

"slash_commands": [
  "keybindings-help",
  "searching-stackoverflow",  // user-level skill
  "handling-pull-requests",   // user-level skill
  ...
],
"skills": [
  "keybindings-help"  // only built-in appears here
]