Uninstalled plugin persists in Cowork cloud manifest (cowork-plugin-management ghost)
Bug Description
After uninstalling the cowork-plugin-management plugin via the Cowork UI (~2026-03-31), the plugin continues to appear in the available skills list on every turn. The plugin's skills (cowork-plugin-customizer, create-cowork-plugin) are listed in <available_skills> and in <system-reminder> skill listings despite being uninstalled.
Steps to Reproduce
- Install the
cowork-plugin-managementplugin in Cowork - Uninstall it via the Cowork UI (Settings → Plugins → Uninstall)
- Start a new Cowork session
- Observe that the plugin's skills still appear in
<available_skills>and<system-reminder>blocks
Expected Behavior
Uninstalled plugins should be fully removed from the Cowork cloud manifest and no longer appear in skill listings.
Actual Behavior
The plugin's two skills (cowork-plugin-customizer and create-cowork-plugin) continue to appear in every turn's system context. The skills are listed with paths under /mnt/.remote-plugins/ pointing to two different plugin IDs:
plugin_016jbzs7aGBZSgBfSWhp4ToXplugin_016WWPoJ2p3XqHHHDvcXhp4p
Both entries reference the same skill names and descriptions, suggesting the plugin was registered twice and neither registration was cleaned up on uninstall.
Impact
- ~150 tokens/turn wasted on ghost plugin skills (cumulative cost across sessions)
- No user-side workaround available — the manifest is cloud-managed
Environment
- Claude Desktop (macOS)
- Cowork mode
- Uninstall date: ~2026-03-31
Related
Possibly related to #28554 (plugin lifecycle management)
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