Plugin Diagnostics

Plugin Diagnostics

Investigate and report plugin defects. Frame findings as plugin defects, not agent failure — if a skill wasn't triggered, that's a description quality issue; if a hook failed, that's a configuration defect.

Parse Arguments

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

• First positional (optional): Path to plugin directory. Default: current working directory.
• --skill SKILL-NAME: Focus on a specific skill.

If no plugin found at path, ask the user which plugin to diagnose.

Cache guard: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ is READ-ONLY. Resolve to the real git repo via atlas: atlas_search_projects(query="plugin-name").

Diagnostic Steps

1. Plugin Structure

• .claude-plugin/plugin.json exists, valid JSON, has name/version/description
• Declared directories (skills/, hooks/, agents/, knowledge/) exist
• Referenced files in manifest actually exist on disk

2. Skills (most common defect source)

For each skill (or --skill target):

Structure: Valid YAML frontmatter with name + description, valid markdown body.

Description quality (the #1 reason skills don't trigger):

• Must be proactive: BAD "Reviews code" → GOOD "Use when user has modified code and needs review. Trigger proactively after changes."
• Must include trigger phrases the user would say
• Must specify proactive triggers if the skill should auto-fire

Content: No bare $VARIABLE outside code blocks, no broken refs to missing knowledge/files.

3. Hooks

• hooks/hooks.json valid JSON with correct event names
• Referenced scripts exist and are executable
• Timeouts reasonable for the operation

4. Agents

• Trigger descriptions match intended use
• Tools list appropriate for the task

5. Runtime Context

• Check remote repo issues: gh issue list -R {repo}
• Verify plugin is installed: claude plugin list
• Check for conflicting plugins with overlapping skill descriptions

Report Format

Plugin Diagnostics: {plugin-name} v{version}

{DEFECT-1}: {category} — {short title}
  Location: {file-path}:{line-number}
  Severity: critical | major | minor
  Details: {what's wrong and why}
  Fix: {concrete change}

Summary: {N} defects, root cause, fix priority

If skill description quality is the root cause, recommend running /skill-creator (from the plugin-dev plugin) to iterate with test prompts and description optimization.