plugin update and reinstall do not pull fresh code on Windows — restores from local cache instead

[ben-ripley]

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Copilot CLI version: 1.0.57
• Reproduced with plugin: https://github.com/upld-internal/burnrate-copilot.git

Description

On Windows, Copilot CLI stores installed plugins in two locations:

• %USERPROFILE%\.copilot\installed-plugins\_direct\<slug>\
• %LOCALAPPDATA%\copilot\marketplaces\<slug>\

Running /plugin update <name>, or uninstalling and reinstalling, does not re-clone from GitHub. It restores files from the %LOCALAPPDATA%\copilot\marketplaces\<slug>\ cache. Plugin updates are never applied.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install a plugin: /plugin install https://github.com/upld-internal/burnrate-copilot.git
2. Push a change to the plugin's GitHub repo
3. Run /plugin update burnrate-copilot (or uninstall and reinstall)
4. Check file timestamps: dir "%USERPROFILE%\.copilot\installed-plugins\_direct\https---github-com-upld-internal-burnrate-copilot-git\scripts\"
5. Files retain the original install timestamp — updated code is never pulled

Expected behavior

/plugin update re-clones or pulls from GitHub and installs the latest code.

Actual behavior

Both cache directories retain the original install content. Even after manually deleting installed-plugins\_direct\<slug>\ and reinstalling, files are restored from the marketplaces cache rather than fetched from GitHub.

Workaround

Manually delete both cache directories before reinstalling:

%USERPROFILE%\.copilot\installed-plugins\_direct\<slug>
%LOCALAPPDATA%\copilot\marketplaces\<slug>