[BUG] Superpowers plugin skills not loaded: version resolves to 'unknown', uses stale empty cache

Preflight Checklist

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

What's Wrong?

The superpowers plugin (installed via official marketplace, version 4.3.1) loads zero skills at startup. The root cause is a version resolution failure that causes Claude Code to use a stale/orphaned cache directory instead of the properly installed version.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the superpowers plugin from the official marketplace
2. Start a new Claude Code session
3. Check available skills — none of the superpowers skills appear (e.g., /superpowers:brainstorm is not available)

Debug Log Analysis

The debug log reveals the exact failure chain:

Step 1: Version lookup fails, falls back to "unknown"

Loading plugin superpowers from source: {"source":"url","url":"https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"}
No version found for superpowers@claude-plugins-official, using 'unknown'

Step 2: Uses the stale "unknown" cache directory (which is essentially empty)

Using versioned cached plugin superpowers from ~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-plugins-official/superpowers/unknown
Plugin superpowers has no entry.skills defined

Step 3: Zero skills loaded from superpowers

Checking plugin superpowers: skillsPath=none, skillsPaths=0 paths
...
Total plugin skills loaded: 1   # (this 1 is from the playground plugin, not superpowers)
getSkills returning: 0 skill dir commands, 1 plugin skills, 3 bundled skills

Meanwhile, the properly installed 4.3.1 version with all 14 skills sits unused:

~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-plugins-official/superpowers/4.3.1/skills/
  brainstorming/  dispatching-parallel-agents/  executing-plans/  ...  (14 skill directories)

The installed_plugins.json correctly references 4.3.1:

{
  "superpowers@claude-plugins-official": [{
    "installPath": "~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-plugins-official/superpowers/4.3.1",
    "version": "4.3.1"
  }]
}

Step 4: Background auto-update discovers version 4.3.1 — but too late

~25 seconds after startup, the background plugin auto-update re-clones the repo and finds the correct version, but by then skill loading has already completed:

Caching plugin from source: {"source":"url","url":"https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"} to temporary path ...
Cloned repository from https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git to ...
Successfully cached plugin superpowers to ~/.claude/plugins/cache/superpowers
Using manifest version for superpowers@claude-plugins-official: 4.3.1

The "unknown" cache directory

The unknown directory is a leftover orphaned cache entry:

~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-plugins-official/superpowers/unknown/
  .opencode/
  .orphaned_at    # contains timestamp 1771480228102

It has no skills, no plugin.json, and no useful content. Deleting it may be a workaround, but the underlying version resolution bug would likely recreate it.

Root Cause

The initial plugin load uses the URL-based source {"source":"url","url":"https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"} and cannot determine the version from it — unlike the playground and code-review plugins which successfully resolve via git SHA. The fallback to "unknown" then matches the stale orphaned cache directory instead of using the installed version from installed_plugins.json.

Workaround

Deleting the stale cache directory may help:

rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-plugins-official/superpowers/unknown

Environment Info

• Claude Code version: 2.1.50
• Platform: macOS (Darwin 24.6.0)
• Plugin: superpowers@claude-plugins-official v4.3.1

Related Issues

• #19029 — Same symptom (superpowers installed but skills not found), closed, older version
• #26555 — Related plugin caching/manifest issue with official marketplace plugins