[BUG] Using Claude Code with "@reference/" file reference forces a prepend of "@../reference"

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?

This happened when using Opus, but not Sonnet.

When I try to read a file in the CLI prompt, I start with "@relative_path/to/file", but the prompt changes that to "@../relative_path/to/file", which is not where the file is. Then CC wants to search for the file I just told it the location of.

pwd; ls reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_site.txt 
/usr/local/src/LeamHall/resume/career
reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_site.txt

❯ Please read @reference/eval                                                   
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  + ../reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_site.txt  

What Should Happen?

Claude should take a relative path from the current directory.

Error Messages/Logs

❯ Please read @../reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_site.txt              
                                                                                
● Read(/usr/local/src/LeamHall/resume/reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_si
      te.txt)                                                                   
  ⎿  Error reading file                                                         
                                                                                
● The file doesn't exist at that path. Let me search for it.                    
                                                                                
● Search(pattern: "**/*evaluate*platform*", path:                               
        "/usr/local/src/LeamHall/resume")                                       
  ⎿  Interrupted · What should Claude do instead?                               
                                                                                
● Search(pattern: "**/*platform*", path: "/usr/local/src/LeamHall/resume")      
  ⎿  Interrupted · What should Claude do instead?

Steps to Reproduce

In a directory where there is a directory of files to read, with a similar directory name in the parent directory, type:

Please read @research/my_file.txt

So far Claude is prepending "../" so that the prompt is forced to:

Please read @../research/my_file.txt

Claude sees

❯ Please read @reference/                                                 
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  + ../reference/evaluate_platform_engineering_site.txt                         
  + ../reference/overview_duckai 

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.14

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Other Linux

Terminal/Shell

Xterm

Additional Information

Oddly, Claude had switched to Opus. When I went back to the Sonnet default it worked.