Desktop app Code tab does not discover plugin commands (only skills)

[charl-astrohive]

Environment

• Claude Code desktop app (macOS), Code tab
• Plugin installed via marketplace (claude plugin marketplace add + claude plugin install)
• Plugin has both commands/*.md and skills/*/SKILL.md components

Expected behavior

Typing /my-command in the desktop app Code tab should discover and execute commands/my-command.md from the installed plugin, the same way it does in the CLI terminal.

Actual behavior

The desktop app routes /my-command through the Skill tool as my-plugin:my-command, which only searches skills/*/SKILL.md. Since my-command is registered as a command (in commands/), it returns:

Unknown skill: my-plugin:my-command

The same /my-command command works correctly in the CLI terminal.

Impact

Plugin commands are a core component type per the plugin architecture. Any plugin that separates user-invoked commands from model-invoked skills hits this gap in the desktop app.

Workaround

Run commands from the CLI terminal instead of the desktop app Code tab, or duplicate commands as skills (which violates the intended component type separation).

[0xbrainkid]

The Code tab not discovering plugin commands (only skills) is a capability discovery scope limitation — the Code tab's command discovery is reading from a different source than the interactive session's command discovery, missing the plugin command registration path.

From an agent identity perspective, this creates an inconsistent capability view across UI surfaces: the agent has plugin commands available in interactive sessions (where they work) but they do not appear in the Code tab's command discovery. The agent's declared command set is surface-dependent, which makes it difficult to know what commands are actually available in a given context.

The distinction between "skills" and "plugin commands" matters here:

• Skills are SKILL.md-defined capabilities with their own slash command registration
• Plugin commands are registered through the plugin's manifest.json or commands/ directory

The Code tab is discovering skills (SKILL.md path) but not plugin commands (plugin manifest path). Both should appear.

Investigation point: How does the Code tab's command discovery differ from the interactive session's discovery? If the interactive session uses a different code path to enumerate available commands, the Code tab should use the same path. The plugin command registration in the plugin framework should be a single source of truth that all UI surfaces read from.

Workaround: Convert plugin commands to skills if the command logic is simple enough to express in SKILL.md format — skills are discovered correctly in the Code tab. This is not ideal but restores Code tab discoverability while the plugin command registration is fixed.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.