Plugin marketplace: /plugin & /reload-plugins wipe marketplace dir and fail to re-clone (owner-prefixed path mismatch with CLI) → all plugins + MCP servers fail to load

Found 2 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/40153
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/35924

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Your root-cause is the useful part: the in-app loader looks for the owner-prefixed path (marketplaces/anthropics-claude-plugins-official) while the CLI populates the repo-only path (marketplaces/claude-plugins-official). That mismatch is what makes the loader empty-then-fail. Two things that help until it's patched:
Break the wipe loop — give the loader its own populated directory at the path it expects, so it stops re-cloning into a missing path:

git clone https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official \
  ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/anthropics-claude-plugins-official

I'd clone a separate copy rather than symlink anthropics-… → claude-plugins-official: if the loader does rm -rf <expected>/* before cloning (which your "left empty" symptom suggests), a symlink would let it wipe the CLI's copy through the link. A real second directory contains the damage to the path the loader owns.
**On the "Invalid path … No such file or directory" while cloning into that path: git normally creates the target dir itself, so that error usually means the parent (~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/) doesn't exist at clone time, or the path is being constructed with a stray component. Worth confirming the parent exists and is writable before/after a /reload-plugins.
Data-loss scope (the part that actually bites):** the marketplace dir is a plain git clone, so the wipe itself is recoverable by re-cloning — unless you hand-edited anything under it, in which case recover those before re-cloning (git -C <dir> stash list / git -C <dir> reflog, or pull from your fork). The lasting damage is runtime: every plugin-provided MCP server (sentry, supabase, posthog, …) drops mid-session.
Avoid re-triggering: until the path logic is fixed, repopulate via the claude plugin marketplace … CLI and steer clear of /plugin / /reload-plugins in the UI — those are the entry points that empty the dir.

This is the same underlying defect as #40153 and #35924 — both closed NOT_PLANNED, neither fixed. Confirming it still reproduces on v2.1.195 (macOS), so flagging that the non-atomic marketplace update is still live on current builds.

Two specifics that may help pin it down:

• The wipe is triggered not just by auto-update/restart but directly by the in-app /plugin panel and /reload-plugins. The CLI claude plugin marketplace update <name> repopulates marketplaces/claude-plugins-official/, but the next in-app load empties it again — so the two fight each other and the UI can't self-recover.
• The in-app loader targets an owner-prefixed path (marketplaces/anthropics-claude-plugins-official) and fails with fatal: Invalid path … No such file or directory, while the CLI + known_marketplaces.json installLocation use the un-prefixed marketplaces/claude-plugins-official. The path-convention mismatch looks like the trigger for the failed clone that then leaves the dir wiped.

Net impact: every plugin-provided MCP server (sentry, supabase, posthog, …) silently fails to load, with no UI-only recovery path.

Thanks for the detailed report — I tried to reproduce this on the current release, 2.1.233 (Linux), following your steps exactly: added anthropics/claude-plugins-official, installed a plugin, then ran /reload-plugins (twice) and /plugin in an interactive session. The marketplace directory was never wiped and plugins kept loading. I also forced the in-app loader to re-fetch from scratch (by removing the cached catalog): it cloned into marketplaces/anthropics-claude-plugins-official and then moved the result onto marketplaces/claude-plugins-official — recovering cleanly.

One clarification on the path question: the anthropics-claude-plugins-official directory isn't a conflicting install location — it's a temporary workspace used while fetching. After a successful fetch, its contents are placed at the installLocation recorded in known_marketplaces.json. The CLI and the in-app loader share this logic.

What actually failed on your machine is git itself: fatal: Invalid path …: No such file or directory during the clone, which usually points at something environmental (e.g. a git config such as init.templateDir referencing a missing path, an unusual git build on PATH, or ~/.claude on a symlinked/network volume). Also, 2.1.232 fixed a race that could silently break marketplace registration, which may explain part of what you saw on 2.1.195.

Could you retry on the latest version and, if it still fails, share: git --version and which git, the output of git config --get init.templateDir, and the relevant lines from a claude --debug session around /reload-plugins? Happy to dig back in with that.

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We weren't able to reproduce this. Could you provide steps to trigger the issue — what you ran, what happened, and what you expected? This issue will be closed automatically if there's no activity within 7 days.