/upgrade-plugin

name: upgrade-plugin
description: Upgrade a plugin's skills, hooks, and patterns to align with latest Claude Code capabilities and best practices. Use when a plugin needs modernization, after Claude Code updates, or when the user says "upgrade plugin", "modernize plugin", or "update plugin to latest patterns".
user-invocable: true
disable-model-invocation: true

Upgrade Plugin

Upgrade a plugin's skills, hooks, and patterns to align with the latest Claude Code capabilities, model features, and skill-writing best practices.

**Arguments:** $ARGUMENTS -- plugin name (e.g., `creator-stack`, `scheduler`) and optional focus areas. If no plugin specified, ask which one.

Locate Target Plugin

Find the plugin to upgrade:

1. Check `<cwd>/<plugin-name>/.claude-plugin/plugin.json` (source mode -- marketplace repo) 2. If not found, check `~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/<plugin-name>/` (installed mode)

If neither found, list available plugins and ask the user to clarify.

Set `PLUGIN_ROOT` to the resolved path.

---

Phase 1: Research Latest Context

Run six research tasks in parallel using subagents. Each subagent summarizes its findings.

1A. Claude Code Changelog

Fetch the latest Claude Code releases:

WebFetch: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases

Also check the raw changelog:

WebFetch: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/claude-code/main/CHANGELOG.md

Extract from the last 3-5 releases:

• New tool capabilities or parameters
• New hook events or rule features
• Changes to skill loading, triggering, or frontmatter
• New agent/subagent patterns
• Deprecations or breaking changes
• Performance improvements relevant to skill design

1B. Claude Code Documentation (Discovery-Driven)

Discover the Claude Code documentation landscape. Do NOT hardcode doc page URLs -- discover them dynamically.

1. Find available documentation:

   WebSearch: "Claude Code" site:docs.anthropic.com
   WebFetch: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview

2. From the search results and overview page, identify and fetch pages covering these categories:

• **Core infrastructure**: skills, hooks, rules, CLAUDE.md
• **Agent capabilities**: subagents/Agent tool, agent teams
• **Plugin system**: commands, output styles, MCP servers, plugin architecture
• **Memory & context**: auto memory, context management
• **Configuration**: settings, permissions, tool gating
• **Workflow**: worktrees, session management

3. For each fetched page, extract:

• Current best practices and recommended patterns
• New features relevant to the target plugin
• Deprecated patterns the plugin might still use
• Capabilities the plugin doesn't leverage yet

1C. Skill-Creator Best Practices

Find and read the installed skill-creator:

Glob: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/skill-creator/*/skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md

Extract:

• Current skill writing patterns
• Progressive disclosure guidelines (line limits, reference files)
• Description optimization guidance (triggering, "pushy" descriptions)
• Testing and evaluation patterns

1D. Superpowers & Platform Patterns

Check official plugins for patterns worth adopting:

Glob: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/superpowers/*/skills/*/SKILL.md

Note structural patterns, frontmatter conventions, or composition techniques.

1E. Plugin Architecture

Understand the full plugin specification and what the target plugin could be using:

1. Read the marketplace conventions (if in source mode):

   Read: <cwd>/CONVENTIONS.md

2. Examine other installed plugins for structural patterns:

   Glob: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/*/skills/*/SKILL.md
   Bash: ls ~/.claude/plugins/cache/*/*/ | head -50

Focus on: plugin.json fields, agents/ directories, MCP server integration, output style patterns.

3. Compare the target plugin's structure against the full spec:

• What directories does it have vs. what's available?
• What plugin.json fields exist vs. what it uses?
• Are other plugins using components this one doesn't?

1F. Model Capability Assessment

Check for model-level improvements that may supersede skills in the target plugin:

1. Search for recent Anthropic model releases:

   WebSearch: "Anthropic Claude" model release OR capability update site:anthropic.com
   WebSearch: "Claude" new capabilities 2026

2. Fetch the models overview page:

   WebFetch: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/about-claude/models

3. Extract capabilities relevant to skill obsolescence:

• Built-in tool use improvements (web search, code execution)
• Reasoning and planning improvements
• Multi-step task handling
• Areas where dedicated prompting/orchestration adds less value

4. Compare against the target plugin's skill inventory:

• For each skill, ask: "Does the model now do this well enough without specialized prompting?"
• Flag skills where the answer is "yes" or "probably"

Research Output

After all research completes, compile a Research Summary with sections:

• **New Claude Code Features** (from changelog + docs)
• **Updated Skill Best Practices** (from skill-creator)
• **Platform Patterns** (from superpowers and other plugins)
• **Plugin Architecture Gaps** (capabilities the target plugin doesn't use yet)
• **Deprecations & Breaking Changes**
• **Model Capability Overlap** (skills potentially superseded by model improvements)

Save to `<cwd>/.docs/upgrade-research/<plugin-name>-<date>.md` for reference.

---

Phase 1.5: Obsolescence Screen

Using research findings from Phase 1 (especially 1A, 1B, and 1F), evaluate whether each skill, agent, and major component in the target plugin is still necessary.

Classification

For each skill and agent, assign one of:

| Rating | Meaning | Action | |--------|---------|--------| | **Active** | Platform/model doesn't replicate this. Skill adds clear value. | Proceed to structural aud