[BUG] Plan agent cannot write plan file, state lost (but tokens billed) - UPDATE: both macOS and Windows

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/11920
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/10882
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/10498

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

May be a similar area, but manifests as a much different issue to the three found

Tip for anyone finding this: in VS Code, enable developer tools and inspect the cropped elements containing the content you have paid for, wherein you can copy the element and paste it into another text editor to hand back to the orchestrator

<img width="351" height="668" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/aa2cbe8e-4040-4ec9-b8bd-27078c3d99e2" />

FYI, I have the same type of issue.
More now claude is asking to create the /plans folder, asking to list the c:\users\xxx\.claude folder.
where as everything was smooth before.

It use token for nothing. The saving of the plan can fail multiple times, so I suspect this is also using additional tokens at each retry.

I move to the latest version yesterday which is a bit better but not as the previous version.
The issue starts on monday version.

Not related to Windows. At least, I'm experiencing the same on Ubuntu (VSCode Plugin also).
It's a problem sometimes, and sometimes not.

For anthropic, Feedback ID: 13f11c69-0d76-4600-9f97-aa20fe9377d5 is another instance of this.

Earlier it says:

  3. Created: copilot_notes/migration-deployment-plan.md with full step-by-step plan

and then it says:

⏺ Read(copilot_notes/migration-deployment-plan.md)
  ⎿  Error reading file

⏺ The plan file doesn't exist at that path - let me find where it was created:

⏺ Search(pattern: "**/*migration*.md")
  ⎿  Found 0 files 

⏺ The Plan subagent provided the plan content but didn't actually write the file. Let me create it now with the phased approach appended:
  ⎿  Interrupted · What should Claude do instead?

???

Still getting this in VS Code with 2.0.55, it's effectively a dead tool at the moment. I asked it to make a plan, the delegated agent couldn't write its 600-line findings to a file, so I stepped in and grabbed the DOM element and handed it to the primary orchestrator, which has since just got distracted instead

<img width="253" height="502" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/76c77b83-94c5-4bd1-9d87-a41453a95e25" />

From second pair of hands to totally unusable in a few version bumps - quite worrying - I hope this gets some attention soon

Adding insult to injury:

<img width="751" height="198" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/86b2d0c6-4ea4-46a1-9796-bb240237a3f3" />

Update: this is happening on macOS too, latest version. I can no longer trust Claude Code to create plans without dropping information on the floor.

Through the use of developer tools I was able to extract this to a file manually:

<img width="362" height="76" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/601ca7c5-a3f7-412e-9ac7-12dfef7a3cda" />

It was 1200 lines.

The agent orchestrator attempted to write a plan file based on the much shorter handoff message the agent subsequently gave it:

<img width="257" height="62" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0e123cb7-94c2-4ebe-b5a5-08bf24825e0c" />

Under half the length, and missing vital context that the agent had originally researched only for the Write tool to give up on the first try.

This is an astonishing waste of time and money: all the tokens this involved (both reading and writing) are burned and yet, obviously, still billed. Not to mention the tokens wasted in generating a subsequent, poorer plan, and then me steering it back on track.

I don't know how else to surface this issue but it's disheartening that this problem is getting very little attention.

Is this an environment-specific issue? I’ve been experiencing it in my setup for a little while now as well, and it’s making it cumbersome to work with Claude.

For reference, I’m using Claude Code via Zed ACP.

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