Claude Code plugins: the dead weight riding every message

TL;DR My own Claude Code called me out: 2 plugins I'd installed and stopped using were still costing me context on every message. Since v2.1.187, /plugin → the Installed tab groups the ones you haven't invoked in ≥2 weeks (across ≥10 sessions) under "Not used recently" and shows each plugin's "Last used" line. Disable or uninstall them and you claw back tokens you were burning in silence.

An active plugin doesn't only cost you when you use it. It costs you at session startup and reloads on every request: its skills, agents, hooks, and above all its MCP servers weigh on your context window turn after turn, whether you invoke them or not. That "on every request" is literal, and it has been measured: across three real sessions, the history being re-sent ran between 16 and 61 times the new content. The problem was never that they cost tokens. It's that nothing surfaced it: you install one, forget it, and it keeps dragging on every exchange.

That changed. Claude Code now detects the plugins you installed yourself and haven't touched in weeks, and puts them front and center so you can decide.

Result (the Installed tab):

/plugin  ›  Installed

▸ Not used recently
    chrome-devtools-mcp@chrome-devtools-plugins
    warp@claude-code-warp

▸ Enabled
    cc-tips@juanwmedia-cc-tips
    typescript-lsp@claude-plugins-official      (LSP)
    rust-analyzer-lsp@claude-plugins-official   (LSP)

  ↵ open detail  →  Last used: 19 days ago · disable / uninstall

How to hunt them down

1. Open the manager and go to Installed

/plugin

Cycle with Tab to Installed. The "Not used recently" group sits at the top: marketplace plugins you installed and haven't invoked in ≥2 weeks across ≥10 sessions. Press Enter on any of them to see its "Last used" line and decide.

2. Confirm the cost with /context

Before you delete, check what they actually take up. /context breaks tokens down by category; a plugin bundling an MCP server is usually the heaviest. For the full picture of what each feature loads and when, see when each feature loads into context.

3. Disable or uninstall

From the detail view, or by command:

/plugin list --enabled                       # what's active
/plugin disable warp@claude-code-warp        # silence it, keep it
/plugin uninstall warp@claude-code-warp      # remove it from disk

disable mutes it but leaves it installed; uninstall removes it. If you act mid-session, follow with /reload-plugins to apply the change without restarting.

Reference

Careful: "none shown" isn't "none cost you"

The detector doesn't list everything. It skips plugins that deliver value without an invocation to track: LSP servers, themes, output styles, monitors, and workflows, plus anything your organization manages or you load with --plugin-dir, which never gets installed at all because it lives for that session only. That's why my two LSP plugins (typescript, rust-analyzer) never show up under "Not used recently" even though they're always on. And if your org restricts marketplaces with strictKnownMarketplaces, the group and the "Last used" line are hidden entirely. Translation: an empty group doesn't mean you're paying no context. That's what /context is for.

This group looks at the whole plugin. To go one layer down and see which individual skills it ships and which of them you have never invoked, /skill-doctor lists them one by one with their cost: plugin skills can't be switched off separately, but it shows you how many of them you're paying for unused before you pull the plugin itself. Your own skills have an exit plugin skills do not: move them into the folder where you use them and they stop loading anywhere else.

Want a wider sweep than just plugins? /doctor now runs the full checkup: on top of dead plugins, it hunts unused skills and MCP servers, a bloated CLAUDE.md, and slow hooks, and fixes them with your OK.

And for the plugin you do use, the next question is not what it costs you in context but whether it earns it: claude plugin eval runs it against a suite with and without the plugin and shows you the gap.

Official docs: Manage installed plugins

Requirement: Claude Code v2.1.187 or later (the "Not used recently" group and the "Last used" line).