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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix /memory command fails to resolve symlinked user memory file in WSL

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When ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a symbolic link (a common setup for managing Claude Code settings in a separate git repository), the /memory command passes the symlink path directly to the editor instead of resolving it to the real file path.

As a result, VS Code opens ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as an empty file, making it impossible to view or edit the actual content through the /memory command.

Root Cause

When ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a symbolic link (a common setup for managing Claude Code settings in a separate git repository), the /memory command passes the symlink path directly to the editor instead of resolving it to the real file path.

As a result, VS Code opens ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as an empty file, making it impossible to view or edit the actual content through the /memory command.

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Description

When ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a symbolic link (a common setup for managing Claude Code settings in a separate git repository), the /memory command passes the symlink path directly to the editor instead of resolving it to the real file path.

As a result, VS Code opens ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as an empty file, making it impossible to view or edit the actual content through the /memory command.

Environment

  • Claude Code version: 2.1.156
  • OS: WSL2 (Ubuntu on Windows, kernel 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2)
  • Editor: VS Code 1.122.0

Steps to reproduce

  1. Set ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md as a symbolic link (e.g., ln -s /home/ubuntu/workspace/claude-code-settings/CLAUDE.md ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md)
  2. Run /memory in Claude Code on WSL
  3. Select "user-memory"
  4. VS Code opens but displays an empty file

Expected behavior

Detect that ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a symbolic link and resolve it to the real path before passing it to the editor. This behavior already works correctly in the Windows native environment.

Actual behavior

The symlink path is passed as-is to the editor, which opens an empty file.

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FAQ

Expected behavior

Detect that ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md is a symbolic link and resolve it to the real path before passing it to the editor. This behavior already works correctly in the Windows native environment.

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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix /memory command fails to resolve symlinked user memory file in WSL