[BUG] @ mentions don't work with additional directories include via add-dir command

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5605
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5284
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/4748

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
• To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Note that while this has been mentioned in other issues, every issue has been closed without providing a fix.

Hello,
Are there any updates on this issue? Due to this issue, working with multi-directory workspaces is very difficult.
Thank you

Please fix, only files within my user and project .claude folders are being displayed, no other files

This issue should be resolved asap since it has been mentioned multiple times

+1. This is blocking lots of workflows.

make sure your .zshrc doesnt have anything weird going on, this may have fixed the problem for me

@cmgrant0 can you please provide more details on what you mean by weirdness in .zshrc? This issue remains unresolved for me, so I am curious.

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. If the issue is still occurring, please comment to let us know. Otherwise, this issue will be automatically closed in 30 days for housekeeping purposes.

Issue is still occurring

Issue is still occurring +1

Issue is still occurring. Commenting to reset the auto-close clock. It took me a while to find this open issue because it keeps getting reported and then auto-closed 😕 Thanks.

Edit: @noVaSon's use case is also what I was trying to do!

Also resetting clock. Continuing to exist as a bug. Incredibly frustrating when working in two separate directories for say frontend and backend.

Adding another data point with a specific use case: nested independent git repos (not submodules, not subtrees).

Setup: Root workspace repo with independent git repos nested inside:

```
workspace/ # git repo
|── .claude/settings.json # additionalDirectories: ["repo-a", "repo-b"]
|── .gitignore # ignores * except .claude/ config
|── .claudeignore # build artifact exclusions only
|── repo-a/ # independent git repo
| └── deep/nested/file.txt
── repo-b/ # independent git repo
└── deep/nested/file.txt

  **What I tried (Claude Code 2.1.71, macOS):**

  | Setting | Result |
  |---------|--------|
  | `additionalDirectories` only | Top-level dir name appears, no deeper autocomplete |
  | + `"respectGitignore": false` | Same - no deeper autocomplete |
  | + `"fileSuggestion"` with custom script | Breaks autocomplete entirely (zero suggestions), even though the script returns correct results when run from the shell |

  The `fileSuggestion` finding might be a separate bug - the script receives JSON on stdin, returns file paths on stdout, works perfectly in isolation, but Claude Code shows nothing.

  For now there's no workaround - typing the full path manually is the only option.

Still not working.

bump :)

👍 Adding another real-world case where this hurts.

We run an internal multi-repo orchestration setup where claude is launched from a small per-session workspace directory, with the actual codebases (two large mobile repos, ~16–17k tracked files each) attached via --add-dir. Tools can read/edit those repos fine, but @ completion never offers anything from them — so every file reference has to be typed as a full absolute path from memory, which effectively kills the @ workflow for multi-repo use.

Re-verified on v2.1.202 (macOS, TUI) with scripted terminal probes: files under --add-dir roots never appear in the popup, regardless of index warm-up time or query specificity.

Two extra data points that may help whoever picks this up:

• In a non-git cwd, the @ index follows directory symlinks into a large external repo (with proper .gitignore pruning inside it) — so symlinking the added dirs into the workspace is a viable workaround there 🎉
• In a git cwd, directory symlinks are not traversed at all, so that workaround dies as soon as the workspace is a repo. Filed separately as #75347 since it's a distinct behavior (that issue also covers the gitignored-cwd case where the index ends up completely empty).

Would love to see --add-dir roots included in the completion index — for agent-launcher / multi-repo setups this is the main missing piece 🙏