[BUG] autoMemoryDirectory ignored when set to a relative path

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?

Reopening #33535, which was auto-closed as stale despite still being reproducible.

The autoMemoryDirectory setting introduced in v2.1.74 is ignored when set to a relative path. As I commented on the original issue:

Same issue here. It seems full paths work, but relative paths don't.

When autoMemoryDirectory is set to a relative path like ./.claude/memory, auto-memory still writes to the default ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/memory/ location. Setting it to an absolute path appears to work as expected.

What Should Happen?

Relative paths in autoMemoryDirectory should be resolved (likely against the project root / current working directory) and honored, just like absolute paths are.

Steps to Reproduce

In project .claude/settings.json:

{
    "autoMemoryEnabled": true,
    "autoMemoryDirectory": "./.claude/memory"
}

Start Claude Code and send a message such as "Remember: if you want me to debug something manually, add pdb breakpoint()'s".

Observe that the Write tool is invoked against ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/memory/ instead of ./.claude/memory.

Workaround: use an absolute path for autoMemoryDirectory.

Is this a regression?

Yes, per the original report this worked in a previous version.

Platform

macOS

Additional Information

Original (auto-closed) issue: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/33535