Plugin Manager Shows 'No plugins installed' Despite Successful Installation

Bug Report: Plugin Manager Shows "No plugins installed" Despite Successful Installation

Environment

• Claude Code Version: 2.0.19
• Platform: macOS 15.7.1 (Build 24G231)
• Date: October 16, 2025

Issue Summary

The /plugin command's "Manage and uninstall plugins" option displays "No plugins installed" even after successfully installing plugins. However, the installed plugins are functional through their slash commands.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install a plugin from the marketplace:

``
/plugin install lyra@claude-code-marketplace
``

1. Installation succeeds with message:

``
✓ Installed lyra. Restart Claude Code to load new plugins.
``

1. Restart Claude Code
2. Run /plugin command
3. Select option "2. Manage and uninstall plugins"

Expected Behavior

The plugin manager should display:

• List of installed plugins (e.g., "lyra")
• Options to manage or uninstall each plugin

Actual Behavior

Plugin manager displays:

╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Manage plugins                                       │
│                                                      │
│ No plugins installed.                               │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Additional Context

Plugin Files Exist and Work

The plugin is actually installed and functional:

Installation location verified:

$ ls ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-code-marketplace/plugins/lyra/
.claude-plugin/  commands/

$ cat ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-code-marketplace/plugins/lyra/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
{
  "name": "lyra",
  "description": "Lyra - a master-level AI prompt optimization specialist.",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  ...
}

Symlink created successfully:

$ ls -la ~/.claude/commands/lyra.md
lrwxr-xr-x  yuxinl -> /Users/yuxinl/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/claude-code-marketplace/plugins/lyra/commands/lyra.md

Command works correctly:

• /lyra command executes successfully
• Plugin functionality is fully operational

Marketplaces Installed

$ ls ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/
awesome-claude-code-plugins/
claude-code-marketplace/
claude-code-templates/

Impact

• Severity: Medium
• Workaround: Plugins work via slash commands despite UI not showing them
• User Impact: Cannot manage or uninstall plugins through the UI, causing confusion about installation status

Possible Cause

The plugin manager UI may not be correctly reading the .claude-plugin/plugin.json files or tracking installed plugins, despite the installation process creating proper symlinks that allow commands to function.

Suggested Fix

Plugin manager should scan and display all plugins that have:

1. Valid .claude-plugin/plugin.json files in the plugins directory
2. Active symlinks in ~/.claude/commands/ pointing to plugin commands
3. Proper directory structure under ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/