Multiple server-side flags incorrectly restricting Pro user features: auto mode, skills dashboard, permission friction

Overview

This report documents 5 related problems discovered on Claude Code Desktop v2.1.142 (Windows 11, account tuliotac93@gmail.com, active Pro plan — invoice R\$110,00 paid 2026-05-10, renewal 2026-06-10). All issues involve either broken plugin/skill lifecycle management or server-side feature flags silently degrading the experience for a paying Pro subscriber.

See also: #59385 (skills not activating after plugin install — same account, same session of investigation).

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Problem 1 — Skills not activated after plugin install (runtime)

Already reported in #59385. Summarized here for completeness.

Plugin installation via the Desktop UI downloads files to plugins/marketplaces/ but does not copy skills to plugins/cache/, which is the path the runtime reads. Skills are silently unavailable after install.

Workaround: manually copy skill directories from plugins/marketplaces/<plugin>/skills/ to ~/.claude/skills/. Skills become available in the same session without restart.

$marketplace = "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\plugins\marketplaces\claude-plugins-official\plugins"
$skillsDir   = "$env:USERPROFILE\.claude\skills"

Get-ChildItem $marketplace -Directory | ForEach-Object {
    $skillsSrc = Join-Path $_.FullName "skills"
    if (Test-Path $skillsSrc) {
        Get-ChildItem $skillsSrc -Directory | ForEach-Object {
            $dest = Join-Path $skillsDir $_.Name
            if (-not (Test-Path $dest)) {
                Copy-Item -Recurse $_.FullName $dest
            }
        }
    }
}

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Problem 2 — Skills copied to ~/.claude/skills/ are invisible in the Desktop UI

Even after the workaround above, the Desktop plugin management UI continues to show the plugins as if their skills are inactive. The UI reads exclusively from plugins/cache/<plugin>/<version>/skills/ — it does not scan ~/.claude/skills/.

Impact: two separate systems for the same feature, with no UI feedback when skills are active via the manual path.

Expected: the UI should reflect skills that are active regardless of which path they came from, OR the install flow should populate plugins/cache/ correctly (fixing Problem 1 would fix this too).

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Problem 3 — Auto mode silently blocked: two independent causes stacked

Cause A: Cowork auto-activates /remote-control, which disables auto mode

When the Cowork feature is enabled (configured via cowork-enabled-cli-ops.json with an ownerAccountId), every new session automatically activates /remote-control. Claude Code disables auto mode in remote-control sessions for security reasons.

The session shows:

/remote-control is active. Code in CLI or at https://claude.ai/code/session_...

And the toast:

"O modo automático não está disponível para esta sessão. Solicitando permissões em vez disso."

Workaround: disable Cowork via the Customize menu. This removes the cowork-enabled-cli-ops.json config.

Missing UX: there is no indication in the UI that Cowork is causing the auto mode restriction. The toast message does not mention Cowork or offer a way to resolve it.

Cause B: server-side GrowthBook flag explicitly disables auto mode

Independently of Cowork, the following flag is set server-side for this account:

"tengu_auto_mode_config": { "enabled": "disabled" }
"tengu_auto_mode_default_on": false

This flag appears to be triggered by:

"cachedExtraUsageDisabledReason": "out_of_credits"

The "Créditos de uso" (extra usage credits) balance is R\$0,00 — but the Pro subscription is fully active and paid. The user is within their plan and actively using Claude.

This is not documented anywhere. There is no warning in the UI, no tooltip, no help article stating that auto mode requires extra usage credits beyond the Pro plan. The only visible symptom is the same toast message as Cause A, with no explanation of the root cause.

Expected: auto mode should work for active Pro subscribers regardless of extra usage credit balance, OR the UI must explicitly communicate this dependency before the user hits the restriction.

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Problem 4 — Skills dashboard disabled by server-side flags

The following flags are false for this account:

"tengu_skills_dashboard_enabled": false
"claude_code_skills_dashboard_enabled_cli": false

The skills management UI is non-functional as a result. This was also noted in #59385.

Expected: skills dashboard should be available to all Pro users. If this is a staged rollout, it should not affect users who are already actively using the skills system.

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Problem 5 — Elevated permission friction flag active

"tengu_permission_friction": true

This flag adds extra confirmation steps to tool calls, slowing down the workflow even for users who have configured defaultMode: "auto" in settings.json. Combined with the auto mode being disabled (Problems 3A and 3B), every tool call requires manual approval regardless of user configuration.

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Evidence Summary

From ~/.claude.json (cachedGrowthBookFeatures):

| Flag | Value | Impact |
|------|-------|--------|
| tengu_auto_mode_config | { "enabled": "disabled" } | Auto mode blocked |
| tengu_auto_mode_default_on | false | Auto mode off by default |
| tengu_skills_dashboard_enabled | false | Skills UI non-functional |
| claude_code_skills_dashboard_enabled_cli | false | Skills CLI UI non-functional |
| tengu_permission_friction | true | Extra confirmation on every tool call |
| cachedExtraUsageDisabledReason | "out_of_credits" | Likely trigger for auto mode flag |

Account status:

• Plan: Pro (active)
• Last invoice: R\$110,00, paid 2026-05-10
• Renewal: 2026-06-10
• Extra usage credits: R\$0,00 (not purchased, auto-recharge not enabled)

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Root Cause Hypothesis

Extra usage credits = R$0 + auto-recharge disabled
  → server sets tengu_auto_mode_config: "disabled"
  → auto mode blocked silently in every session
  → Cowork (if enabled) adds a second independent block on top
  → user sees only a generic toast with no actionable explanation

The dependency between extra usage credits and auto mode availability is undocumented and unexpected for a Pro subscriber. If this is intentional product behavior, it needs to be clearly communicated in the billing UI and in the auto mode UI.

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Environment

• Version: Claude Code Desktop v2.1.142 (also present in 2.1.146)
• OS: Windows 11 Home
• Account: tuliotac93@gmail.com
• Plan: Pro (active, paid monthly)