Profile Loader

Switch the active plugin set to match a workflow profile, reducing per-spawn skill enumeration overhead (see #1041, #1080).

Usage

/profile list                   # Show all available profiles
/profile current                # Show currently active profile
/profile load <name>            # Activate a profile (requires session restart)
/profile reset                  # Remove active profile marker (restores full plugin set)

Implementation rules

.claude/ path handling (CC v2.1.121+) Direct Write/Edit on .claude/profiles/.active and ~/.claude/settings.json is permitted under mode: "bypassPermissions" (CC v2.1.121+, #1101). The legacy /tmp/*.sh bypass is deprecated. For CC < v2.1.121, see git history for the legacy pattern.

Profiles directory

Profiles live in .claude/profiles/*.json. Active profile marker: .claude/profiles/.active (plain text, contains profile name).

Global plugin state is stored in ~/.claude/settings.json under enabledPlugins (object: plugin-key → boolean).

Workflow: /profile list

1. Read .claude/profiles/ — glob *.json
2. For each JSON file: read name and description fields
3. Check .claude/profiles/.active for currently active profile
4. Print table:

Available profiles:
  web-app      Web application development (frontend + auth + deploy)
  data-eng     Data engineering sessions (Airflow, Spark, Kafka, Snowflake, dbt)
  harness-dev  oh-my-customcode harness development (agent/skill/rule authoring)
  minimal      Minimal plugin set for low-overhead sessions (memory + core only)

Active: web-app  (restart required to apply plugin changes)

Workflow: /profile current

1. Read .claude/profiles/.active
2. If exists: print Active profile: <name>
3. If missing: print No profile active (full plugin set in use)

Workflow: /profile load <name>

1. Locate .claude/profiles/<name>.json
2. Read profile JSON — extract plugins.enabled and plugins.disabled
3. Read ~/.claude/settings.json — extract current enabledPlugins object
4. Compute diff:
   • Plugins to enable: in plugins.enabled but currently false or absent
   • Plugins to disable: in plugins.disabled but currently true
5. Show diff to user:

Profile: web-app
  Enable:  context7, superpowers, vercel, ui-design, ...
  Disable: codex, ralph-wiggum, agent-sdk-dev, ...

6. Apply changes via direct Edit on ~/.claude/settings.json (mode: "bypassPermissions", CC v2.1.121+):

   • Read ~/.claude/settings.json, merge the computed diff into enabledPlugins (set enabled plugins to true, disabled plugins to false), then Write the updated JSON back.

7. Write active marker via direct Write on .claude/profiles/.active (mode: "bypassPermissions"):

   • Write the profile <name> as plain text content to .claude/profiles/.active.

8. Confirm:

[Done] Profile 'web-app' applied to ~/.claude/settings.json
Active marker written to .claude/profiles/.active
IMPORTANT: Restart this Claude Code session for plugin changes to take effect.

Workflow: /profile reset

1. Remove .claude/profiles/.active marker via direct Bash: /bin/rm .claude/profiles/.active (mode: "bypassPermissions")
2. Print: [Done] Profile marker removed. Full plugin set will be active after restart.
3. Note: does NOT revert ~/.claude/settings.json — user should re-run /profile load <other> or manually restore

Notes

• Profile changes to ~/.claude/settings.json take effect only after session restart
• Profiles define a subset: plugins not listed in enabled or disabled keep their current state
• Profile JSON enabled/disabled lists use full plugin keys: <name>@<marketplace> format
• All .claude/ writes use direct Write/Edit/Bash (CC v2.1.121+, no /tmp wrapping — see Implementation rules above)