Overview

Previous: #2 — Marketplace-First Pivot and v2a/v2b Design and Implementation

This sprint (#3) covered two major tracks across 12 commits. First, a full audit of plugin triggering correctness, resulting in 5 fixes. Second, a redesign of the marketplace plugin recommendation system from live search to a validated, pre-curated list, plus an upgrade of the tool sequence to a 3-step sliding window.

Full Plugin Trigger Audit

Diagnosing the Problems

A comprehensive review of plugin.json skill definitions, hooks execution paths, and internal skill logic uncovered 5 triggering issues.

graph TD
    A["Trigger audit"] --> B["CRITICAL <br/> Path reference errors"]
    A --> C["MAJOR <br/> Environment variable mismatch"]
    A --> D["MINOR <br/> Missing functionality"]
    B --> E["Unify to <br/> CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT"]
    C --> F["Add preset <br/> existence check"]
    D --> G["Add install <br/> verification to status"]

Fix 1: Unify to CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT

Skills and hooks were referencing the plugin directory in inconsistent ways: claude plugin path calls, hardcoded paths, and relative paths all coexisted. Everything is now unified to a CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT environment variable with a dirname-based fallback.

# Before: mixed reference approaches
PLUGIN_DIR="$(claude plugin path harnesskit)"
PLUGIN_DIR="/Users/lsr/.claude/plugins/cache/harnesskit/..."

# After: unified reference
PLUGIN_DIR="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)}"

Fix 2: Add Preset Check to post-edit Hooks

post-edit-lint.sh and post-edit-typecheck.sh were executing before a preset was configured, causing errors. Added a preset existence check; they now skip gracefully if no preset is set.

Marketplace Validated Recommendation System

The Original Problem

/harnesskit:init was relying on live search to recommend marketplace plugins, which was unstable and produced inconsistent results.

The Fix: Pre-Validated Recommendation List

Switched to maintaining a marketplace-recommendations.json file populated by an update-recommendations.sh script that periodically crawls and updates the list.

graph LR
    A["update-recommendations.sh"] -->|"crawl"| B["Marketplace"]
    B --> C["Validate / Filter"]
    C --> D["marketplace-recommendations.json"]
    D -->|"/harnesskit:init"| E["Recommendations to user"]

/harnesskit:insights also now references recommendations.json when suggesting improvements, so it only recommends validated plugins.

3-Step Sliding Window Tool Sequence

Upgraded the tool usage pattern analysis from a simple count approach to a 3-step sliding window for better precision. Tool usage is now recorded in tool:summary format, with pattern detection triggering improvement suggestions.

Plugin Installation Verification

Added installation state verification to the /harnesskit:status skill. It now reports skill file presence, hooks execution permissions, and configuration file integrity in a single view.

Commit Log

Key Takeaways

In plugin development, “it works” and “it triggers correctly” are different problems. In a local development environment, paths are fixed and everything looks fine. In another user’s environment, the plugin cache path, environment variables, and preset state are all different. Unifying everything to CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT is a small change that fundamentally improves portability. Switching marketplace recommendations from live search to a pre-validated list is driven by the same instinct — reduce uncertainty and guarantee a consistent experience.