VS Code extension silently drops a single plugin skill while siblings load correctly

Summary

In the VS Code Claude Code extension, a single skill from a plugin is silently absent from the slash-command palette while all 11 other skills from the same plugin load and work normally. The same plugin works fully in the terminal CLI — only the extension is affected. The skill file is present on disk, has valid YAML frontmatter, and the plugin's manifest reflects the latest version.

Related but broader: #17271 (all plugin skills not appearing). Filing separately because here the plugin generally works — only one skill is dropped.

Environment

• macOS (Darwin 25.3.0)
• VS Code Claude Code extension, claude-code-vm 2.1.119
• Plugin: aquivalabs/aquiva-skills v2026.4.8 (HTTPS marketplace, auto-install via webhook)
• Affected skill: agentforce-deploy (added in plugin v2026.4.7)
• Working sibling skills from the same plugin: markdown-web, abm, analyze-psa, assess-codebase, create-slides, list-building, outreach, research-appexchange, sf-code-analyzer, sf-ecosystem, signals

Reproduction

1. Install plugin aquivalabs/aquiva-skills v2026.4.8 in the VS Code extension via the Manage Plugins UI (HTTPS marketplace).
2. Confirm Manage Plugins shows the plugin as installed and enabled, and \"Already synced to the latest commit\".
3. Start a brand-new conversation (+ button).
4. Type \/\ — observe slash-command palette.

Expected: /agentforce-deploy appears alongside /markdown-web, /abm, etc.

Actual: Sibling skills appear (/markdown-web, /abm, etc.), but /agentforce-deploy is missing.

What we verified

The skill file has been delivered correctly to the extension's plugin cache:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/<sid>/<sid>/rpm/plugin_018TMw7E3UxwNkMqSjyVdn4f/skills/agentforce-deploy/SKILL.md

• File mtime: 2026-04-27 20:54 (after plugin update; correct fixed content).
• Plugin manifest at rpm/manifest.json shows aquiva-skills updatedAt: 2026-04-27T18:46:14, version v2026.4.8.
• All 12 skill subdirectories including agentforce-deploy exist under that plugin's skills/ directory.

YAML frontmatter parses cleanly with PyYAML:

---
name: agentforce-deploy
description: \"Use when creating, editing, or deploying Salesforce Agentforce metadata — genAiFunctions, genAiPromptTemplates, genAiPlugins, genAiPlannerBundles, or bots — in any sfdx project with these directories under one of the \`packageDirectories\` declared in \`sfdx-project.json\`. Encodes the manual fixups Salesforce CLI does not handle — schema.json scaffolding, prompt-template versionIdentifier bumps, deployment-detection nudge for schema-only edits, bot topic refresh, and bot deactivation when deploys are blocked by an active agent.\"
---

• Description length: 530 chars. Sibling signals skill has a 542-char description and loads fine, so length doesn't appear to be the trigger.
• Only name and description keys; no allowed-tools or other fields.

The same plugin version and the same SKILL.md, on the same machine, load agentforce-deploy correctly when invoked through the terminal claude CLI. So the marketplace, the YAML, and the file delivery are all sound — the extension's skill indexer is the only thing skipping it.

What we tried (none of which fixed it)

• Quit/reopen VS Code multiple times.
• Open a fresh conversation via the + button.
• Click \"Re-sync\" in Manage Plugins → Marketplaces (got \"Already synced to the latest commit\").
• Confirm the file is the corrected v2026.4.8 content (an earlier YAML parse error in v2026.4.7's frontmatter was fixed in v2026.4.8 — the CLI picked the fix up; the extension still does not).

Note on possible interaction

This repo also contains a project-level skill named agentforce at .claude/skills/agentforce/. The plugin skill is agentforce-deploy — distinct names, but they share a prefix. Could not verify whether prefix overlap with a project-level skill influences plugin-skill indexing in the extension. Mentioning in case it's a clue.

Why this matters

Silent skill drops are hard to diagnose — there is no error surfaced in the Manage Plugins UI, in the marketplace re-sync flow, or in the slash-command palette. The skill is simply absent. A user who didn't know to inspect ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/.../rpm/... would have no way to tell whether the file failed to deliver, the YAML failed to parse, or the indexer skipped it.