Custom agents in .claude/agents/ not discovered by /agents dialog (v2.1.89)

Bug Description

Custom agent files placed in .claude/agents/ (both project-level and user-level) are not discovered by the /agents dialog or claude agents CLI command.

Environment

• Claude Code version: 2.1.89 (latest as of 2026-04-01)
• OS: macOS (Darwin 24.6.0, ARM64)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create .claude/agents/ directory in project root
2. Add agent .md files with valid YAML frontmatter:

``yaml
---
name: growth-lead
description: "Growth Squad lead agent"
tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, WebSearch, WebFetch
model: opus
---
``

1. Restart Claude Code session
2. Run /agents — shows "No agents found"
3. Run claude agents in terminal — only shows 5 built-in agents

Expected Behavior

Custom agents in .claude/agents/ should appear in the /agents dialog and claude agents output, as documented.

Actual Behavior

• /agents dialog: "No agents found. Create specialized subagents that Claude can delegate to."
• claude agents output: Only lists 5 built-in agents (claude-code-guide, Explore, general-purpose, Plan, statusline-setup)

Additional Context

• 22 agent files exist in .claude/agents/ with valid frontmatter (name, description fields present)
• Files are UTF-8 encoded, no BOM
• File permissions are normal (-rw-r--r--)
• User-level agents at ~/.claude/agents/ are also not discovered
• --agent <name> CLI flag is available but requires memorizing agent names