Should using plugin:relay/{recommended,strict} should automatically reference the plugin?

[nirvdrum]

I apologize for the indecision on whether this issue is a bug report or a support question. At the heart of it, my ESLint config consists of extends from several different plugins (e.g., eslint-plugin-react), none of which need an explicit reference in the plugins section. Based on that, I'd expect that if I use extends: ['plugin:relay/recommended'] that that would imply plugins: ['relay'], but it currently does not.

Before opening this issue, I tried to see if ESLint was specially handling these other plugins or if the plugins were violating some spec, but still working incidentally. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything conclusive. The ESLint docs give examples where the plugins section is populated, but don't really say if that's a requirement. Interestingly, the eslint-plugin-react example config is different than the one in eslint-plugin-react's docs and says you don't need to populate plugins if using an extends ruleset.

If this functionality can't be added, then I think the docs could be enhanced. While I realize adding 'relay' to the plugins section is step 1 of "How to Use", it's paired with a step 2 that discusses activating individual rules. I misread the part about using "plugin:relay/recommended" as an alternative to both steps that preceded it, rather than just the most recent step. I was likely primed to misread that based on my experience with other ESLint plugins.