claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Settings watcher only watches dirs that had a settings file at session start (silent hook failure) [1 participants]

When a user creates .claude/settings.json (or .claude/settings.local.json) in a project that didn't have one when the session started, the harness's settings watcher does not pick it up. Hooks defined in the new file silently never fire. There is no error, no log line, no UI indication. 3. Trigger the matching tool. Hook does not fire. No error.

TL;DR

The issue can be fixed by implementing a mechanism to detect and reload settings when a new .claude/settings.json or .claude/settings.local.json file is created in a project directory.

Guidance

• To address the issue, consider watching the .claude/ directory for creation events to detect newly added settings files.
• Another approach is to surface a one-time message when a settings.json or settings.local.json file is written in any project ancestor of the current working directory, instructing the user to open /hooks or restart to apply the changes.
• Auto-reloading settings on file write, similar to how the watcher handles edits to existing files, could also resolve the issue.
• Verify the fix by recreating the reproduction steps and checking if the hook fires as expected after creating the settings file.

Example

No code snippet is provided as the issue does not imply a specific code change, but rather a design or implementation decision.

Notes

The chosen solution should balance usability and performance, considering the trade-offs between automatically reloading settings, prompting the user, or requiring manual intervention.

Recommendation

Apply a workaround, such as watching the .claude/ directory for creation events or surfacing a one-time message, as implementing an auto-reload mechanism may introduce unintended side effects or performance issues.