All installed claude code skills disappear - cc-switch
Quick fix
Check whether ~/.claude/skills was rewritten to ~/.agents/skills; if so move it back and restart Claude Code. Still missing: upgrade cc-switch and reinstall.
Symptom
Section titled “Symptom”claude code 通过 /plugin marketplace 安装的 skill，偶发性地在重新打开 claude code 后全部消失。Skills installed in claude code through /plugin marketplace occasionally all disappear after reopening claude code.
CC Switch backfills the skill directory when switching config or restarting, and early write logic could overwrite ~/.claude/skills. Maintainers say v3.13.0 backfills the live config before writing via Provider Key Lifecycle & Live Sync, but users still reported losses on v3.14.1, v3.15.0, v3.16.x, and v3.17.1, so fixes and regressions coexist. Other reports point at config written to ~/.agents/skills while Claude Code only recognises ~/.claude/skills by default. On Windows the symlink target can be written as /c/Users/..., which native claude.exe cannot resolve; the "skill directory does not exist" message at install time got backslash normalisation in v3.16.2 but failures are still reported. Scanning long looked only at ~/.claude/skills and never adapted to ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/<marketplace>/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md, so skills installed from the plugin marketplace are not found. Missing relative-path repository scripts and skill.sh install failures belong to the same install/injection path, while preconfigured repositories reappearing after deletion and Hermes Agent still reading its own skills directory are adjacent repository-state and projection-path problems.
Check whether ~/.claude/skills is missing. If the skills moved to ~/.agents/skills, move the directory back to ~/.claude/skills and restart Claude Code.
Upgrade cc-switch to v3.13.0+. If you are already on v3.14.1/v3.15.0/v3.16.x/v3.17.1 where regressions are still reported, reinstall and verify the skills after upgrading.
On Windows, check the link target of ~/.claude/skills/<skill>. If it reads /c/Users/<username>/.cc-switch/skills/<skill>, change it by hand to C:\Users\<username>\.cc-switch\skills\<skill> or a relative path.
If skills installed from the plugin marketplace are not scanned, check the real path ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/<marketplace>/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md. Until this is supported officially, copy or link it into ~/.claude/skills/<skill> by hand.
If the source is skill.sh (gstack, for example) or a custom repository that pulls incompletely or fails to install, upgrade to a fixed version and reinstall.
Affected Versions
Section titled “Affected Versions”Source Issues
Section titled “Source Issues”This page is distilled from 11 real issues
- #1001skill仓库存在相对路径的目录，无法拉取完整的skill
- #1815claude code 后已经安装过的 skill 全部消失
- #1816[bug] claude code 已安装的 skill 全部消失
- #2094使用skill.sh安装gstack失败
- #3009Skills symlink uses Unix-style path on Windows, causes skills to not load in Claude Code
- #3165安装skill提示技能目录不存在
- #4221SKILLs 无法添加
- #4677Skills: 预配置仓库删除后重复出现
- #5250Hermes Agent still reads its own skills instead of cc-switch skills
- #5402skills bugs?
- #5582[Bug] 扫描不到 Claude Code Skills：未适配 plugins 目录结构
- v3.13.0 is marked as fixed — why do skills still disappear on v3.15.0/v3.16.x?
- Maintainers acknowledge the fix and community regression reports coexist. Besides upgrading, check whether ~/.claude/skills was moved to ~/.agents/skills, and reinstall the skills.
- Installing a skill says the skill directory does not exist. What now?
- Upgrade to v3.16.2+ (that version normalised Windows backslash paths). Confirm the target skill directory exists and is named correctly. If it still fails, reopen the issue with your version number, config, and a screenshot.
- On Windows the skill symlink target is /c/Users/... and Claude Code will not load it. What now?
- Change the link target by hand to C:\Users\<username>\.cc-switch\skills\<skill> or a relative path, since claude.exe cannot resolve Unix-style paths.
- cc-switch does not find skills installed from the Claude Code plugin marketplace.
- cc-switch still scans ~/.claude/skills while they actually live at ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/<marketplace>/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md. Copy them into ~/.claude/skills by hand until this is supported.
- Why does Hermes Agent still read its own skills rather than .cc-switch/skills?
- That Hermes Desktop projection path problem is tracked in #4896. If a difference remains after upgrading and re-projecting, reopen the issue with your system, Hermes version, and the actual directory.
Related problems
Section titled “Related problems”This is an unofficial community wiki with no affiliation to the cc-switch authors or the project itself. Its content is compiled from the project's public GitHub issues. This site distributes no software.