claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [DOCS] Plugin enable/disable docs missing dependency enforcement behavior

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins-reference

Section/Topic

plugin enable and plugin disable command behavior when plugins depend on each other

Current Documentation

The command reference currently says:

plugin enable

Enable a disabled plugin.

claude plugin enable <plugin> [options]

plugin disable

Disable a plugin without uninstalling it.

claude plugin disable <plugin> [options]

discover-plugins also documents these as simple one-plugin actions:

Disable a plugin without uninstalling:

/plugin disable plugin-name@marketplace-name

Re-enable a disabled plugin:

/plugin enable plugin-name@marketplace-name

What's Wrong or Missing?

A. plugin disable refusal behavior is undocumented

Claude Code v2.1.143 added dependency enforcement when disabling plugins:

claude plugin disable now refuses when another enabled plugin depends on the target, with a copy-pasteable disable-chain hint.

The current docs do not mention that plugin disable can fail because of enabled dependents, or that the command now provides a disable order to resolve the dependency chain.

B. plugin enable transitive side effects are undocumented

The same release changed claude plugin enable so that it force-enables transitive dependencies.

The current docs describe plugin enable as enabling one disabled plugin, but do not say that enabling one plugin may also enable additional dependency plugins automatically.

Without these details, users can be surprised in both directions:

• plugin disable appears to reject a valid command with no documented explanation
• plugin enable changes the state of more plugins than the one named on the command line

Suggested Improvement

Update the plugin enable and plugin disable sections in plugins-reference to document the dependency-aware behavior explicitly.

Suggested additions:

For plugin disable:

If another enabled plugin depends on the target plugin, Claude Code refuses the disable request and prints a copy-pasteable chain showing which dependent plugins must be disabled first.

For plugin enable:

If the target plugin depends on other disabled plugins, Claude Code enables those transitive dependencies automatically so the dependency graph is satisfiable.

Add a shorter note in discover-plugins so the interactive /plugin enable and /plugin disable workflow also reflects these dependency rules.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Affected Pages:

Total scope: 3 pages affected

Source: Changelog v2.1.143

Exact changelog entry:

Added plugin dependency enforcement: claude plugin disable now refuses when another enabled plugin depends on the target (with a copy-pasteable disable-chain hint), and claude plugin enable force-enables transitive dependencies