CLI 1.18.30 Linux: npm-spec plugin in opencode.json never initializes (silent); identical code as a file:// plugin works

Environment

Symptom

A server-side plugin listed in the global opencode.json plugin array never initializes on the CLI. No error, no warning, no service=plugin line even with --log-level DEBUG, no tools, no hooks.

This is not the lazy-loading behavior documented in #33455: tool calls execute in the same run, and a local probe plugin's tool.execute.after hook fires on those calls, while the npm-spec plugin does nothing.

Evidence

opencode debug config resolves the entry and records its provenance:

"plugin": ["opencode-token-norm", ...],
"plugin_origins": [
  { "spec": "opencode-token-norm", "source": "/home/alitabatabaei/.config/opencode", "scope": "global" }
]

opencode plugin opencode-token-norm --global populated ~/.cache/opencode/packages/opencode-token-norm{,@latest}/. That install is valid — node_modules/opencode-token-norm/dist/index.js imports under Node 24 and exports both plugin functions. The runtime cache documented at https://opencode.ai/docs/plugins/ ("How plugins are installed": Bun installs npm plugins at startup into ~/.cache/opencode/node_modules/) does not exist. Cf. #32421.

Same run, two plugins, one works:

• .opencode/plugins/probe.js (local file spec): initialized, and its tool.execute.after hook fired on the bash call.
• opencode-token-norm (npm spec): nothing.

The identical code loaded as a local file spec — ~/.config/opencode/plugins/opencode-token-norm.js containing export * from "file:///.../dist/index.js" — initializes on the first tool call and works end to end (threshold reminder fired, handoff tool registered).

Repro

opencode run --print-logs --log-level DEBUG \
  "Run the bash command 'echo hi' exactly once using the bash tool, then reply ok"
# => zero plugin-related log lines

Suspected

The npm-spec install path (opencode plugin CLI → ~/.cache/opencode/packages/) is not wired to the runtime loader, and the failure is swallowed (#47200). It looks like server-side npm-spec loading is never attempted on this build, rather than attempted and failed. #33884 notes that server-side npm-spec plugins load fine in 1.17.10; on 1.18.30 Linux they do not.