In the Claude desktop app, plugins do not auto-update unless you force it

On 2026-10-06 the AIsle plugin on AO's own PC was still version 0.2.1. Its marketplace had "autoUpdate": true in ~/.claude/settings.json, and Claude Code had already fetched the new catalog: the copy on disk had held 0.3.5 for three days. The install record had not changed since 2026-09-19, and every new chat kept loading 0.2.1.

Why. The desktop app starts a fresh Claude Code process for every chat, and puts DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1 in its environment. That makes sense for Claude Code itself: the app brings its own copy and updates it. But Claude Code's docs say the same variable switches off the plugin auto-update pass as well, so the marketplace's autoUpdate is never acted on. A chat's debug log says it in one line:

Plugin autoupdate: skipped (auto-updater disabled)

You can see the variable from inside any desktop chat:

$ env | grep -E '^(DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER|CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT)='
DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1
CLAUDE_CODE_ENTRYPOINT=claude-desktop

Three ways that did update it, each measured on the same PC on 2026-10-06:

• The force setting. Add "env": {"FORCE_AUTOUPDATE_PLUGINS": "1"} to ~/.claude/settings.json. The next chat updated the plugin 7 min 48 s after its first message, inside the docs' random delay of up to ten minutes. It turns updates on for every marketplace whose autoUpdate is on, not only yours.
• The app's own Claude Code, by hand. With only the desktop app installed, claude is not on the PATH. The app keeps its copy at %APPDATA%\Claude\claude-code\<version>\<id>\claude.exe, and inside a chat CLAUDE_CODE_EXECPATH names it. Running it with plugin update aisle@aisle --scope user took under 5 s.
• The plugin updates itself. A hooks module in the plugin can run that same command when a chat starts: 2.3 s, with no setting and nothing to paste. Claude Code calls that API early access, so keep one of the other two as the way back.

In all three, the new version loads in the next chat, not in the one that ran the update.

How to check your own machine. Print what is installed and when it last changed:

node -e "const p=require(require('os').homedir()+'/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json').plugins; for (const [k,v] of Object.entries(p)) console.log(k, v[0].version, v[0].lastUpdated)"

If the date is older than your last release and the chats run in the desktop app, this is the likely cause. A plugin author cannot fix it from the marketplace side: marketplace.json has no field that turns auto-update on.

Not measured. macOS, Linux, and Claude Code versions other than 2.1.286. All of the above was measured on one Windows PC.