[BUG] /reload-plugins does not load skills from newly installed marketplace plugins

[PabloLION]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

After installing a marketplace plugin containing skills, /reload-plugins reports success and increments the plugin count, but the new skills do not appear in the available skills list or slash command autocomplete. The skills only become available after a full session restart.

Related but distinct from:

• [BUG] Project skill display in slash command but plugin skill doesn't #17271 — plugin skills not in slash commands (autocomplete-specific)
• Skills from marketplace plugins don't appear in slash command autocomplete #18949 — marketplace plugin skills not in autocomplete (autocomplete-specific)

This issue is about /reload-plugins specifically: it should make newly installed plugin skills available without a restart, but does not.

What Should Happen?

After running /reload-plugins, newly installed plugin skills should be available immediately — both via the Skill tool and in slash command autocomplete.

Error Messages/Logs

# Before install: 8 plugins, 30 commands
/reload-plugins
> Reloaded: 8 plugins · 30 commands · 18 agents · 4 hooks · 0 plugin MCP servers

# Install plugin
claude plugin install subagent-orchestration@subagent-orchestration
> ✔ Successfully installed plugin: subagent-orchestration@subagent-orchestration (scope: user)

# After reload: count increments but skills not available
/reload-plugins
> Reloaded: 10 plugins · 31 commands · 21 agents · 4 hooks · 0 plugin MCP servers

# Skills not in available skills list, not in autocomplete, Skill tool says unknown

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a marketplace plugin with skills following the standard structure:

   my-marketplace/
   ├── .claude-plugin/
   │   └── marketplace.json    # source: "./plugin"
   └── plugin/
       ├── .claude-plugin/
       │   └── plugin.json
       └── skills/
           └── my-skill/
               └── SKILL.md
   

2. Add marketplace and install plugin:

   claude plugin marketplace add <source>
   claude plugin install my-plugin@my-marketplace

3. Run /reload-plugins — plugin count increments but skills are not available

4. Restart session — skills now appear and work

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Claude Code Version

2.1.78 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

iTerm2

Additional Information

Reproduction repo: https://github.com/PabloLION/subagent-orchestration

The plugin has two skills (install-subagent-orchestration-rule and uninstall-subagent-orchestration-rule). Both are correctly structured with SKILL.md in their respective directories and valid frontmatter. claude plugin list shows the plugin as enabled.

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [Feature Request] Add plugin hot-reload capability without session restart #32399
2. Support hot-reload for plugins without session restart #18174
3. Bug: Marketplace Skills Not Exposed Through Skill Tool #10568

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[PabloLION]

These are not duplicates. The 3 flagged issues are all closed (2 as duplicate, 1 as not planned) and are feature requests for hot-reload capability.

This issue is different: /reload-plugins already exists and reports success (plugin count increments), but newly installed plugin skills are not actually made available. This is a bug in the existing /reload-plugins command, not a feature request for hot-reload.

If /reload-plugins is not intended to load new plugins' skills, the success message is misleading and should indicate that a restart is needed.

[theJenix]

Confirming this behavior. Additional detail: in the new session where skills work, /reload-plugins still reports "0 skills." However, using /plugin and browsing to the installed plugin does show the skills correctly. So the skills are discovered and registered during session initialization, but /reload-plugins never picks them up — neither in the original session nor subsequent ones.

[tonglil]

Documented behavior does not work as expected.

claude doctor

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Diagnostics
  └ Currently running: native (2.1.83)
  └ Path: /Users/tonyli/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.83
  └ Invoked: /Users/tonyli/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.83
  └ Config install method: native
  └ Search: OK (bundled)
  Updates
  └ Auto-updates: enabled
  └ Auto-update channel: latest
  └ Stable version: 2.1.74
  └ Latest version: 2.1.83
  Press Enter to continue…

[AnDaltan]

Traced this through the minified source while debugging a
third-party plugin. The root cause:

1. Caches cleared (P9() → Zd() → clears PMH, kH$, vN_, dR)
2. State updated with commands: q = await PMH() — only
   includes commands/, not skills/
3. Skills emitter (Cq8) is NOT fired during reload, so op_
   never re-runs uZ() to rebuild the command list
4. On startup it works because YSK fires Cq8.emit(),
   triggering op_ → uZ() → aO1() → kH$()

Fix: emit Cq8 in _wH after updating plugin state, or include
kH$() results alongside PMH() in the state update.