[BUG] Claude forgets about plans

Preflight Checklist

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

What's Wrong?

After creating a plan through plan-mode, after a few compactions claude forgets it's there.
Then it starts to look for a plan in all the wrong locations, often finding some outdated documents it created itself.

When I explicitly tell it to "activate" a plan at the plan-directory (like ~/.claude/plans/federated-petting-pie.md) it acts all dumb and says:

● I'm not sure what you mean by "activate." A few options:

  1. Enter plan mode to review/refine Phase 3 before implementing
  2. Create a todo list from Phase 3 and start implementing
  3. Update the plan file to mark Phase 2 complete and track progress

  Which did you have in mind? Or is there a specific Claude Code feature you're thinking of that I should know about?

I don't want to enter plan mode again. I want it to continue using the plan properly.

What Should Happen?

How does plan mode work, really? Is it really _just_ a markdown file that gets read? There's no internal state being kept around, like the internal TODOs?

I would expect it keeps track of what phases have been completed in a plan, but it really struggles with this.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Create a big plan. Compact a few times. It'll forget.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.0.69

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_