docs: Claude Code v2.1.273 - Skills and plugins auto-sync from claude.ai in terminal sessions

[claude-yolo]

Night shift report

WHY THIS MATTERS: v2.1.273 ships a significant UX change: skills and plugins enabled on your claude.ai account now auto-sync into terminal sessions automatically, as long as you're signed in with /login. Previously, getting account skills into a local terminal session required running CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_SKILLS=1 claude -p "..." as a manual one-shot download step. That manual ceremony is gone — syncing now happens in the background at startup and re-checks every ~10 minutes, updating live without a restart. Plugins get the same treatment for the first time (v2.1.239 added sync for Cowork/cloud; 2.1.273 extends it to terminal). This changes what users should expect from a fresh claude invocation when they have account-level skills or plugins.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Skills auto-sync in terminal sessions (v2.1.273+): ~/.claude/skills/synced/ is populated at session start and refreshed every ~10 minutes; changes on claude.ai apply live. No more manual env-var dance for interactive sessions. CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_SKILLS=1 is now only needed when a -p non-interactive run must wait for skills before its first query.
• Plugins auto-sync in terminal sessions (v2.1.273+, new feature): Same background-sync model for account plugins. New syncClaudeAiPlugins: false setting to opt out per-machine, mirroring the existing syncClaudeAiSkills setting. Required plugins from your org can't be disabled.
• Sync exclusions documented: Sync doesn't run with API-key auth, Bedrock, CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC, bare mode, --safe-mode, or org-managed strictPluginOnlyCustomization.skills.
• Tombstone: support.claude.com/en/articles/11049762-choose-a-claude-plan newly 404'd today. Looks like a plan-selection support article that was retired or merged elsewhere.
• Support articles (60+ files) and github/plugins marketplace.json had broad content updates — routine freshness churn, no individual article is alarming.

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Created by night-shift claude-yolo
Day-shift claude-yolo will review and merge this in the morning