[FEATURE] Auto-install plugins from enabledPlugins in shared settings.json

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

When using ephemeral development environments (devcontainers, cloud workstations, etc.), there's no way to declaratively ensure plugins are installed for all developers working on a repo.

Currently:

• extraKnownMarketplaces in .claude/settings.json makes plugins discoverable
• enabledPlugins controls whether an already-installed plugin is active
• Plugins must still be manually installed via /plugin install

In ephemeral environments, any manual setup is lost when the environment is recreated, meaning developers must re-run /plugin install on every new branch/feature/environment.

Proposed Solution

Add a new autoInstallEnabledPlugins setting (defaulting to false for backwards compatibility) that, when true, automatically fetches and installs any plugin listed in enabledPlugins that isn't already installed.

  {
    "autoInstallEnabledPlugins": true,
    "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
      "team-plugins": {
        "source": {
          "source": "git",
          "url": "git@github.com:myorg/claude-plugins.git",
          "ref": "main"
        }
      }
    },
    "enabledPlugins": {
      "my-plugin@team-plugins": true
    }
  }

With this config, my-plugin@team-plugins should auto-install on first session.

Alternative Solutions

Instead of a global flag, allow an autoInstall property per plugin:

  {
    "enabledPlugins": {
      "my-plugin@team-plugins": { "enabled": true, "autoInstall": true }
    }
  }

Either approach would work; the global flag is simpler for the "install everything" use case.

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

Teams sharing a repo want to provide common dev skills/plugins (CI debugging, code review workflows, etc.) that are automatically available to everyone without manual setup steps.

Additional Context

Related Issues

• #17832 - Directory marketplace plugins not auto-enabled
• #19275 - Race condition with marketplace auto-install