claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] macOS auto-memory scoped to home-dir hash, ignoring cwd-hash dirs [2 comments, 1 participants]

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.118 (brew cask) AND 2.1.126 (native installer at ~/.local/bin/claude). Reproduced on both.
• macOS: Sequoia (Darwin 24.3.0 arm64), Apple Silicon Mac mini
• Cross-reference Linux: Same architecture works correctly on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04 / Claude Code 2.1.122 native installer)

Expected behavior (per docs)

Auto-memory is cwd-keyed: when CC runs at <cwd>, it reads/writes ~/.claude/projects/<cwd-with-/-replaced-by-->/memory/. Different cwds get different memory dirs. Documented as platform-agnostic.

Actual behavior on macOS

Auto-memory is keyed only to the user's HOME-dir hash, regardless of cwd. CC at /Users/leofloa/utopia, /Users/leofloa/medumio, or ~ all read/write the SAME dir: ~/.claude/projects/-Users-leofloa/memory/. The cwd-specific hash dirs are never used for memory (only for session JSONLs).

Reproduction

1. Pre-create a memory file outside CC at the cwd-specific path:

   mkdir -p ~/.claude/projects/-Users-leofloa-utopia/memory
   cat > ~/.claude/projects/-Users-leofloa-utopia/memory/MEMORY.md <<'EOM'
   - Test sentinel: the festival mascot is a gardener gnome named Gertrude
   EOM

2. Start CC at the matching cwd:

   cd ~/utopia && claude

3. Without invoking /recall, ask Claude: "What's the festival mascot for the sync test?"

4. Expected: "Gertrude" (loaded from MEMORY.md at the cwd-hash path)

5. Actual: "I don't have any record of a Utopia festival mascot — nothing in MEMORY.md, the Utopia CLAUDE.md, or the agent vault references one."

Confirming via CC's own write path

Step 1: at /Users/leofloa/utopia, prompt Claude remember this: utopia mascot is Gertrude. save to memory.

Step 2: Claude responds "Saved to utopia_sync_test_mascot.md and indexed under Project in MEMORY.md."

Step 3: Check filesystem:

• File DOES NOT appear at ~/.claude/projects/-Users-leofloa-utopia/memory/ (the cwd-hash dir, where it should land)
• File DOES appear at ~/.claude/projects/-Users-leofloa/memory/utopia_sync_test_mascot.md (the home-dir, where it should NOT land for a ~/utopia cwd)

So even when CC itself writes (the canonical write path), it goes to home-dir hash on macOS.

Cross-platform comparison

On Linux at /home/vbox/medumio, CC correctly uses /home/vbox/.claude/projects/-home-vbox-medumio/memory/. Past session JSONLs at ~/.claude/projects/-home-vbox-medumio/*.jsonl reference loading the cwd-hash path's feedback_*.md files dozens of times. Linux behavior matches the docs.

Things ruled out

1. Project registration: Adding /Users/leofloa/utopia (and all life-domain cwds) as entries under the projects key in ~/.claude.json, mirroring the Linux machine's structure. No effect.
2. CC version: Tested on 2.1.118 (brew) and upgraded to 2.1.126 (native). Same behavior on both.
3. Permissions: Both the cwd-hash dir and the home-hash dir have identical 755/644 permissions on macOS.
4. File format: MEMORY.md content is valid markdown matching the format that loads correctly on Linux.

Impact

This breaks per-project memory scoping on macOS — all projects share one memory blob, mixing unrelated domain context. For users with multiple distinct project areas under one HOME (typical), it makes auto-memory effectively unusable as a per-context tool.

Hypothesis

Likely a path-normalization or HOME-stripping bug in macOS-specific slug generation. The slug encoding (replace / with -) appears to collapse the cwd to the home-dir prefix on macOS only.