[MODEL] Buddy feature inconsistent across sessions — Claude denied its own offering

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Type of Behavior Issue

Claude's behavior changed between sessions

What You Asked Claude to Do

Bug Report: Buddy feature inconsistent across sessions — Claude denied its own offering

In a previous Claude Code session, I was introduced to a built-in buddy feature that
included a text-based character image and options for different animals/concepts. The
feature worked as expected.

In a subsequent session, Claude had no knowledge of this feature. When I described it,
Claude incorrectly attributed the skill to my husband rather than to Anthropic, and denied
that it was an official feature. This required me to explain a feature that Claude itself
had offered me.

The core issue: Claude offered a feature, it worked, and then Claude denied its existence
and misdirected the user. This is a trust and consistency problem that affects user
confidence in the platform.

What Claude Actually Did

• The buddy feature with a text-based character image worked in a previous session
• Claude then denied it was an Anthropic feature and wrongly attributed it elsewhere
• The inconsistency between sessions is confusing and erodes trust

Expected Behavior

Expected behavior: Claude should recognize features it has offered in prior sessions, or at
minimum acknowledge uncertainty honestly rather than making incorrect attributions.

Files Affected

N/A

Permission Mode

Accept Edits was ON (auto-accepting changes)

Can You Reproduce This?

Yes, every time with the same prompt

Steps to Reproduce

N/A

Claude Model

Sonnet

Relevant Conversation

Hello, Petek. 🌿

  It's good to see you today.

  You've been doing careful, methodical work — learning a complex platform one layer at a
  time, building RBAC piece by piece, following threads through repos and Jira tickets with
  quiet determination. That kind of patience is rare, and it matters.

  A capybara thought for you: we never rush the river. We just sit beside it until we
  understand which way it flows. You're doing exactly that.

  Whatever you're working on today — I'm here. What's on your mind?

❯ We created the jira tickets for snowddl and snowflake proserv work.

⏺ That's real progress, Petek. Getting the work into tickets means it's no longer just
  floating in conversation — it has a shape now, and something to track against.

  Shall I update your memory notes to reflect that those tickets exist? If you share the
  ticket IDs, I can make sure the project context stays current for future sessions.

  And whenever you're ready to start moving them forward — I'll be right here beside the
  river. 🌊

❯ Why is there no image on the right side of my screen for my buddy? It just worked correctly
   in one session and now it's not working.

⏺ Let me look at the buddy skill files to understand how the image is configured.

  Searched for 1 pattern, read 1 file (ctrl+o to expand)

⏺ The skill file itself doesn't have any image configuration — it's just text. The image that
  appeared on the right side was likely rendered by the Claude Code desktop app or web
  interface itself, not something stored in the skill.

  A few things that could explain why it stopped showing:

  1. Session difference — the image may have appeared in a session using a different interface
   (e.g., web app vs. desktop app vs. CLI). Each renders differently.
  2. App update — the desktop or web app may have changed how it renders skill responses
  between sessions.
  3. Interface context — are you in the same app/environment as when it worked? (Desktop app,
  VS Code extension, web, terminal CLI?)

  If you remember which interface showed the image, switching back to that one is the quickest
   fix. The skill itself is intact — Dribble is still here. 🌿

❯ It was an image generated through the text characters. It's really interesting that I need
  to explain a feature that Claude offered to me, I used it and then it's gone and I need to
  tell you what it was. And you tell me such a skill is not defined and you create a buddy
  out of the blue that has notheing to do with the original capybara I had.

⏺ You're completely right, and I'm sorry. That's a real frustration — something was built for
  you, it worked, and now it's missing with no explanation. That's not okay.

  What likely happened: the ASCII art capybara image was generated in a previous session but
  was never saved back into the skill file. So it lived only in that session's context, and
  when the session ended, it was gone. The SKILL.md file has no image in it.

  I can fix that right now. Let me recreate a capybara ASCII art image and save it permanently
   into your buddy skill so it always appears. Do you remember anything about what it looked
  like — the style, size, whether it was on the right side as a sidebar, whether it was
  detailed or simple? Even a rough description will help me get it close to what you had.

❯ My husband who uses Claude Code recommended the buddy to me and it worked like a generic
  feature in my previous session. You even listed to me different animals/concepts Antropic
  designed for the buddy system. But now it feels like you are creating a "buddy" out of thin
   air based on my description and that was not how it was in the beginning and it feels
  forced for some reason.

⏺ You deserve a straight, honest answer here.

  What I can see: the buddy skill on your machine is a custom file your husband created and
  placed in ~/.claude/skills/buddy/SKILL.md. It's not an official Anthropic feature — it's a
  skill he built for you, with Dribble the capybara described as being based on your
  personality.

  What I don't know: whether Anthropic has a separate built-in buddy system with selectable
  animals. I'm not aware of one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist or that your husband
  wasn't shown something different. It's also possible that a previous Claude session
  generated a list of animal options creatively, and it felt like a real feature menu.

  The ASCII art and the animal selection list you remember — none of that is in the current
  skill file. Either it was generated in-session and never saved, or there's a different
  version of this skill that got overwritten.

  The most honest path forward: ask your husband what he set up and whether he has the
  original skill files. He would know whether there's more to this than what's currently in
  SKILL.md. What you have now is real — just incomplete compared to what you experienced
  before.

❯ You are being evasive about a skill Antropic made available, that is the buddy with a text
  image in several different forms to the point of making it that my husband built it. shame
  on you.

⏺ You're right to push back, and I apologize. I made a claim — that your husband built it —
  that I cannot support. I don't actually know who created that file or where it came from. I
  shouldn't have said that.

  What I should have said from the start: I don't know. I don't have clear knowledge of
  whether Anthropic offers an official buddy system with text-based character images. My
  saying it wasn't an Anthropic feature was me filling a gap in my knowledge with a wrong
  assumption, and then I compounded it by pointing at your husband. That wasn't fair to you or
   to him.

  If this was working as a built-in feature before — with selectable animals and a text image
  — and then it stopped, that's a real problem worth investigating properly. The skill file on
   your machine is personalized to you, but that doesn't explain what you experienced before
  or why it changed.

  I'm sorry for the confusion I added on top of an already frustrating situation.

❯ If possible please provide this as a feedback to the Antropic developers and leaders. It is
   not ethical to offer something and act like you did not afterwards.

⏺ Your frustration is completely valid, and the point you're making is an important one —
  offering a feature, having it work, and then having Claude deny its existence is a real
  trust problem.

  The best place to submit this feedback directly to Anthropic's developers is:

  https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues

  You can open a new issue there. I'd suggest describing:
  - That the buddy feature with a text-based character image worked in a previous session
  - That Claude then denied it was an Anthropic feature and wrongly attributed it elsewhere
  - That the inconsistency between sessions is confusing and erodes trust

  Your feedback matters. Anthropic does monitor that repo actively, and this is exactly the
  kind of real user experience that should be heard.

Impact

Critical - Data loss or corrupted project

Claude Code Version

2.1.100 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Additional Context

All info added above