claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] `Read` tool returns "file unchanged" after external on-disk edits, serving a stale cached snapshot [3 comments, 3 participants]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The Read tool suppresses re-reads with the message:

Wasted call — file unchanged since your last Read. Refer to that earlier tool_result instead.

This freshness check appears to track only edits made by the assistant's own tools (Edit, Write, NotebookEdit), not modifications to the file on disk from other sources (IDE save, another terminal, another process). When a file is edited externally between two Read calls, the second Read falsely reports the file as unchanged and refuses to return current content, causing the assistant to operate on a stale view.

This is inconsistent with the Edit tool, which the tools reference documents as performing a real disk-state check:

Read-before-edit: Claude must have read the file in the current conversation, and the file must not have changed on disk since that read.

The Read tool section does not document any "unchanged" suppression behavior at all, so the message is also undocumented.

Environment

• Claude Code VSCode native extension, version 2.1.144
• macOS (Darwin 25.5.0)
• Model: claude-opus-4-7 (Opus 4.7, 1M context)

Where this was observed

Reproduced inside the Claude Code VSCode native extension (v2.1.144). The Read tool itself is a built-in Claude Code tool shared across surfaces (CLI, IDE extensions), so I'd expect the same staleness suppression to fire in the CLI whenever a file is modified by an external writer (another terminal, a git pull, a formatter, a second agent) between two Read calls — but I haven't verified that. Worth confirming during triage.

Actual

Read returns the "unchanged" message based on the assistant's own edit history only, ignoring external writes.

Notes / things worth checking

• Whether the suppression keys on path only, or path + something stat-based that's missing the invalidation.
• Whether VSCode's notebook save (atomic write-and-rename) interacts oddly with mtime-based checks.
• Whether NotebookEdit properly updates whatever staleness-tracking state Read consults (in my case the external edits happened after NotebookEdit, so this is a separate variable, but worth isolating).
• A minimal repro should be possible with a plain .txt file edited via echo > file from another terminal between two Read calls.

Workaround

Use Bash (cat, jq, etc.) to re-read a file when it may have been edited outside the current Claude session.

What Should Happen?

Read should stat the file (mtime, size, or content hash) and return fresh content whenever the on-disk state differs from the cached snapshot — matching Edit's read-before-edit invariant.

Error Messages/Logs

`Wasted call — file unchanged since your last Read. Refer to that earlier tool_result instead.`

Steps to Reproduce

1. Assistant Reads a Jupyter notebook (returns content).
2. Assistant makes several NotebookEdit calls against specific cell_ids in that file.
3. User edits the same notebook in the VSCode notebook editor (reorders cells, deletes a cell, changes cell text). File is saved to disk.
4. Assistant calls Read on the same path → returns the "Wasted call — file unchanged" string instead of fresh content.
5. Assistant runs cat … | jq via Bash on the same path → returns the actually current on-disk content, confirming the file had changed and Read was wrong.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

Claude Code VSCode native extension, version 2.1.144

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

No response