/clear creates a new session instead of clearing current context — misleading command semantics

Bug Description

/clear is described as "Clear conversation history and free up context", but it actually creates a new session with a new UUID, identical to /new. This is semantically wrong — "clear" universally means "reset the current state", not "abandon current and create new".

Evidence from source

// Command definition
{
  name: "clear",
  description: "Clear conversation history and free up context",
  aliases: ["reset", "new"],  // ← "reset" and "new" are NOT synonyms
}

// Handler
async function clearConversation({setMessages, setConversationId, ...}) {
  setMessages(() => []);
  setConversationId(randomUUID());  // ← creates entirely new session
}

setConversationId(randomUUID()) generates a new session ID, meaning all subsequent messages go to a new JSONL file. The old session is effectively abandoned.

Expected behavior

/clear should:

• Clear the conversation messages from context
• Stay in the same session (same JSONL file, same session ID)
• Preserve session metadata (custom title, tags, working directory)
• Free up context window for new conversation

/new should:

• Create a new session with a new UUID
• Start fresh with no metadata carried over

These are fundamentally different operations. In no programming context does "clear" mean "create new":

• console.clear() — clears the console, doesn't open a new terminal
• clear (terminal) — clears the screen, same shell session
• localStorage.clear() — empties storage, doesn't create a new origin
• git stash clear — deletes stashes, doesn't create a new repo
• Array.clear() / .length = 0 — empties the array, doesn't allocate a new one

Impact

• Users who /rename a session then /clear lose their named session — the name stays on the old (now abandoned) session, and the new session has no name
• Session continuity is broken: tools, working directory context, and session-level state are reset unexpectedly
• Users who want to actually clear context within a session have no command to do so

Related

• #31220 — Feature request for /clear --keep-session (workaround for this bug)

Environment

• Claude Code 2.1.81
• OS: Arch Linux