claude-ops plugins skill: converge predicts the wrong settings-write behavior for `uninstall -s project`

[kyle-sexton]

What's wrong

skills/plugins/context/converge.md Step 5 says claude plugin uninstall -s project
"can remove an enabledPlugins entry" from a project's committed .claude/settings.json.
That phrasing licenses a run to predict "no enabledPlugins key, therefore no write" and skip the
diff check. The prediction is wrong: the call always writes that file.

Hit live while running /claude-ops:plugins converge over 18 project-scope pins. The skill reported
the mutations as machine-local, then both affected checkouts turned out to have a dirty tracked
.claude/settings.json.

Verified behavior (Claude Code 2.1.228)

Single calls, against a clean tracked .claude/settings.json, git-diffed after every step:

Call	Writes committed settings?	Effect
install -s project	yes	adds the id to enabledPlugins (true)
update -s project	no	the existing documented exemption still holds
uninstall -s project	yes	removes the entry, leaves "enabledPlugins": {}

Both writing calls rewrite the whole file in Claude Code's key order, so unrelated sibling keys move.
uninstall writes the enabledPlugins key even into a file that never had one, which is what
produces a diff that changes no behavior — an empty map plus a key reorder.

Also missing

• Project scope keys on the working directory, not the repository. Verified by uninstalling one
  id in a repo's main checkout and watching its git worktree's record for the same id survive. Two
  checkouts sharing one .git and one tracked .claude/settings.json pin independently.
  converge.md Step 2 already mandates a per-projectPath cd, but justifies it as "a different
  repo" — understating the worktree case.
• sync.md write-timing uncertainty. The "Version capture" section notes the skill has not
  established when the CLI writes installed_plugins.json relative to the "restart to apply"
  message. One observation is now available and worth recording without retiring the fallback.

Expected

Step 5 should check every touched project unconditionally and classify the diff — inert (empty map
plus reorder) versus substantive (an entry actually removed) — because the two warrant opposite
advice. scope-semantics.md should carry install/uninstall as verified facts beside the update
exemption.

Notes

Upstream anthropics/claude-code#81058 reports a related but more destructive variant on 2.1.220
(the key deleted from user settings, disabling a surviving user-scope install). That did not
reproduce on 2.1.228 — the user-scope enabledPlugins entries survived the converge run intact.