[BUG] Account-synced plugins cannot be removed: they reappear after removal from the desktop app AND claude.ai, and are invisible to the CLI

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Account-synced plugins cannot be removed: they reappear after removal from the desktop app AND claude.ai, and are invisible to the CLI Summary Five Anthropic "knowledge-work" plugins (Operations, Engineering, Product Management, Productivity, Marketing) plus a sixth hidden one (Plugin Management / cowork-plugin-management) cannot be removed by any available control. They reappear after every removal attempt and keep loading ~50 skills into every session.

All three removal paths fail:

Desktop app → Settings → Plugins → ⋮ → Remove — the row disappears, then returns. claude.ai account plugin toggle — the documented fix ("To remove a synced plugin, turn the plugin off for your claude.ai account; the next synced session starts without it", support.claude.com/en/articles/14328846) — behaves identically. Removal does not stick. claude plugin uninstall — impossible: the CLI cannot see them at all. Environment Claude Code 2.1.274, Claude desktop app (Code tab) Windows 10 Home 19045 Plan: Max. Account belongs to an organization (account is the org owner). Plugins installed 2026-09-16T00:04:15Z; all six within ~2 seconds of each other.

Diagnostics The CLI has no knowledge of these plugins:

$ claude plugin list No plugins installed. Use claude plugin install to install a plugin. So claude plugin uninstall cannot be used as a workaround.

All CLI-side plugin state is already empty:

~/.claude/settings.json → "enabledPlugins": {} ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json → {"version":2,"plugins":{}} ~/.claude/settings.local.json → does not exist ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ → contains only an unrelated plugin (cloudflare) They live in a separate desktop-app subsystem:

%APPDATA%\Roaming\Claude\local-agent-mode-sessions<accountUuid><orgUuid>\rpm\manifest.json

Each entry reads:

{ "name": "operations", "displayName": "Operations", "marketplaceName": "knowledge-work-plugins", "installedBy": "user", "installationPreference": "available" } Note "installedBy": "user" — these are NOT org-admin-forced, so the documented "organization owner marked them Required" explanation does not apply here.

The strongest diagnostic signal A sixth plugin in the same panel, PDF Viewer, was removed successfully and has stayed removed. The five knowledge-work plugins, installed in the same batch from the knowledge-work-plugins marketplace, do not. Whatever distinguishes PDF Viewer from the knowledge-work bundle is likely the bug.

Additionally, cowork-plugin-management appears in manifest.json and loads its skills into sessions, but is not listed in the Settings → Plugins UI at all — so there is no control of any kind exposed for it.

Suspected origin The account has a setup-claude skill described as "Guided setup — install role-matched plugins, connect your tools, try a skill". The batch install timestamp is consistent with that flow having run. If a guided-setup flow installs plugins in a state the removal UI cannot reverse, that would explain the symptom.

Impact ~50 skills load into every session and cannot be removed. On a plan with a weekly usage cap this is unwanted, unremovable context on every request, and several of the plugins are actively wrong for the user's domain (a US GAAP/SOX finance plugin on a project doing Dominican Republic DGII tax filings).

What I could not find No existing issue, forum thread or Reddit post reporting this specific symptom. Searched the issue tracker, community forum and Reddit for "plugins reappear after removing", "plugin keeps reinstalling", "remove role-matched plugins". Issue #28554 is a related but distinct bug (marketplace-installed plugin re-installing in the CLI).

What Should Happen?

Removing a plugin removes it, and its skills stop loading into sessions.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to reproduce Open Settings → Plugins → Your plugins. Observe the group "From Anthropic & Partners". Click ⋮ on any of the five rows → Remove. The row disappears. Reopen the panel (or restart the app). The row is back. Repeat on claude.ai in a browser. Same result.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.274

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

No response