[BUG] Sub-agents (Explore, Plan, general-purpose) Bash tool defaults to /root instead of inheriting parent session's working directory

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?

Sub-agents spawned via the Agent tool (including built-in types like Explore, Plan, and general-purpose) have their Bash tool CWD set to /root instead of inheriting the parent session's working directory.

This causes sub-agents to run commands like:

find /root -type f -name "*.md" -path "*metabase/docs*" 2>/dev/null | head -20
find /root -type d -name "metabase" 2>/dev/null

…when they should be searching from the actual project directory (e.g., /Users/espassculture/Development/git-repos/passculture/data-gcp).

The Glob and Grep tools do use the correct working directory, so only the Bash tool is affected. This creates a pattern where the sub-agent wastes turns finding nothing via find/ls, then eventually falls back to Glob/Grep which work correctly.

What Should Happen?

Sub-agents should inherit the parent session's working directory for all tools, including Bash. The Bash tool CWD in sub-agents should match the parent's CWD (or the project root), not default to /root.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start Claude Code in a project directory (e.g., /Users/me/Development/my-project)
2. Launch an Explore agent:

``
Agent(subagent_type="Explore", prompt="Find all markdown files related to docs in this project")
``

1. Observe the Explore agent's Bash commands — they reference /root as the base path:

``bash
find /root -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | head -20
ls /root/
``

1. The agent finds nothing, wastes several turns, then falls back to Glob/Grep (which correctly use the project directory)

Expected Behavior

The Explore agent should run:

find /Users/me/Development/my-project -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | head -20

Or simply:

find . -type f -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | head -20

(with CWD correctly set to the project directory)

Error Messages/Logs

No errors — the commands succeed but search the wrong directory, returning empty results silently.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default) — but applies to all models

Is this a regression?

Unknown — may have always been present

Claude Code Version

2.1.74 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Pycharm terminal

Additional Information

Key observation: Glob and Grep tools in sub-agents correctly use the parent's working directory. Only the Bash tool defaults to /root. This suggests the issue is specific to how the Bash tool's CWD is initialized in sub-agent processes, not a global directory inheritance problem.

Related issues:

• #26429 — Expose project root to Task subagents (CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR)
• #25140 — memory: project resolves relative to subagent's perceived root
• #11239 — Plan agent uses main branch path instead of worktree directory
• #31940 — AgentDefinition should support cwd and additionalDirectories

This may share root cause with #26429 — sub-agents don't receive proper directory context from the parent session.