Plugin installer does not resolve symlinks when copying to cache, breaking plugins that use symlinked skill files

[drewmoseley]

Bug

The Claude Code plugin installer copies plugin files to the cache directory without resolving symlinks. Plugins that use relative symlinks within their skill directory end up with dangling symlinks in the cache, making the skill fail to load.

Reproduction

Install the frontend-slides plugin (zarazhangrui/frontend-slides). Its plugins/frontend-slides/skills/frontend-slides/ directory contains relative symlinks pointing to files in the repo root (e.g. SKILL.md -> ../../../../SKILL.md). After installation the cache directory contains broken symlinks / empty dirs — no skill content loads.

Cache path: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/frontend-slides/frontend-slides/1.0.0/skills/frontend-slides/

Expected

Installer resolves symlinks on copy so the cache is self-contained with real files.

Fix

Use cp -L or equivalent (rsync -aL) when copying plugin content to the cache directory. This ensures symlinks are followed and real file content lands in cache regardless of plugin structure.

Workaround

rsync -aL \
  ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/<plugin>/plugins/<plugin>/ \
  ~/.claude/plugins/cache/<plugin>/<plugin>/<version>/

Note: re-running /plugins install does not fix the issue — the broken symlinks are reproduced on each install.

[github-actions]

Found 1 possible duplicate issue:

1. [BUG] Plugin symlinks not dereferenced when copying to cache #41392

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[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.