How to turn mod reloading on or off in Claude Code with an environment variable

Claude Code reloads a mod when the mod's files change. This applies to mods you load with --plugin-dir, and it's on by default in interactive sessions. Starting with 2.1.321, headless sessions also reload mods in .claude/skills when their files change.

To turn it off in every session, set it to 0.

export CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_DIR_WATCH=0

To keep it on in non-interactive sessions too, set it to 1.

export CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_DIR_WATCH=1

Use 0 if you edit a mod while a claude -p run is going and don't want the changed code picked up midway. The environment variable docs say it requires Claude Code 2.1.287 or later.