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claude-code

Claude-code-skills claude-skills-troubleshooting

Diagnose and resolve Claude Code plugin and skill issues. This skill should be used when plugins are installed but not showing in available skills list, skills are not activating as expected, or when troubleshooting enabledPlugins configuration in settings.json. Triggers include "plugin not working", "skill not showing", "installed but disabled", or "enabledPlugins" issues.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/daymade/claude-code-skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/suites/daymade-claude-code/claude-skills-troubleshooting" ~/.claude/skills/daymade-claude-code-skills-claude-skills-troubleshooting && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: suites/daymade-claude-code/claude-skills-troubleshooting/SKILL.md
source content

Claude Skills Troubleshooting

Overview

Diagnose and resolve common Claude Code plugin and skill configuration issues. This skill provides systematic debugging workflows for plugin installation, enablement, and activation problems.

Quick Diagnosis

Run the diagnostic script to identify common issues:

python3 scripts/diagnose_plugins.py

The script checks:

  • Installed vs enabled plugins mismatch
  • Missing enabledPlugins entries in settings.json
  • Stale marketplace cache
  • Invalid plugin configurations

Common Issues

Issue 1: Plugin Installed But Not Showing in Available Skills

Symptoms:

  • /plugin
    shows plugin as installed
  • Skill not appearing in Skill tool's available list
  • Plugin metadata exists in 
    installed_plugins.json

Root Cause: Known bug (GitHub #17832) - plugins are added to 

installed_plugins.json
but NOT automatically added to 
enabledPlugins
in 
settings.json
.

Diagnosis:

# Check if plugin is in installed_plugins.json
cat ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json | grep "plugin-name"

# Check if plugin is enabled in settings.json
cat ~/.claude/settings.json | grep "plugin-name"

Solution:

# Option 1: Use CLI to enable
claude plugin enable plugin-name@marketplace-name

# Option 2: Manually edit settings.json
# Add to enabledPlugins section:
# "plugin-name@marketplace-name": true

Issue 2: Understanding Plugin State Architecture

Key files:

FilePurpose
~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json
Registry of ALL plugins (installed + disabled)
~/.claude/settings.json
→ 
enabledPlugins
Controls which plugins are ACTIVE
~/.claude/plugins/known_marketplaces.json
Registered marketplace sources
~/.claude/plugins/cache/
Actual plugin files

A plugin is active ONLY when:

  1. Exists in 
    installed_plugins.json
    (registered)
  2. Listed in 
    settings.json
    → 
    enabledPlugins
    with value 
    true

Issue 3: Marketplace Cache Stale

Symptoms:

  • GitHub has latest changes
  • Install finds plugin but gets old version
  • Newly added plugins not visible

Solution:

# Update marketplace cache
claude plugin marketplace update marketplace-name

# Or clear and re-fetch
rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/cache/marketplace-name
claude plugin marketplace update marketplace-name

Issue 4: Plugin Not Found in Marketplace

Common causes (in order of likelihood):

  1. Local changes not pushed to GitHub - Most common!

    git status
git push
claude plugin marketplace update marketplace-name

  2. marketplace.json configuration error

    python3 -m json.tool .claude-plugin/marketplace.json

  3. Skill directory missing

    ls -la skill-name/SKILL.md

Diagnostic Commands Reference

PurposeCommand
List marketplaces
claude plugin marketplace list
Update marketplace
claude plugin marketplace update {name}
Install plugin
claude plugin install {plugin}@{marketplace}
Enable plugin
claude plugin enable {plugin}@{marketplace}
Disable plugin
claude plugin disable {plugin}@{marketplace}
Uninstall plugin
claude plugin uninstall {plugin}@{marketplace}
Check installed
cat ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json | jq '.plugins | keys'
Check enabled
cat ~/.claude/settings.json | jq '.enabledPlugins'

Batch Enable Missing Plugins

To enable all installed but disabled plugins from a marketplace:

python3 scripts/enable_all_plugins.py marketplace-name

Skills vs Commands Architecture

Claude Code has two types of user-invocable extensions:

  1. Skills (in 

    skills/
    directory)

    • Auto-activated based on description matching
    • Loaded when user request matches skill description

  2. Commands (in 

    commands/
    directory)

    • Explicitly invocable via 
      /command-name
    • Appears in Skill tool's available list
    • Requires command file (e.g., 
      commands/seer.md
      )

If a skill should be explicitly invocable, add a corresponding command file.

References

  • See 
    references/known_issues.md
    for GitHub issue tracking
  • See 
    references/architecture.md
    for detailed plugin architecture