[BUG] /clear command doesnt work and it opens a new chat with the name of "/clear"

[faiqbasharatai-del]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Typing /clear in the chat input does not clear the current conversation. Instead, it opens a new session with "/clear" as the session name. The original conversation remains unchanged and the session list accumulates multiple entries titled "/clear".

What Should Happen?

The /clear command should clear the current conversation context within the active session, not create a new one.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open an active Claude Code session in the VSCode extension
2. Type /clear in the chat input and press Enter
3. Instead of clearing the conversation, a new session is created named "/clear"
4. Repeating this creates multiple sessions all named "/clear" in the session history

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.113

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. VSCode extension: /clear slash command sent as verbatim message instead of clearing conversation #52999
2. VSCode extension 2.1.119: /clear routes to phantom session (webview sends session_id:"" in io_message) #52888
3. VSCode extension: SessionStart hook receives source='startup' after /clear instead of 'clear' #49937

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

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[0xbrainkid]

This looks like a command-dispatch failure rather than a simple missing feature. /clear is being interpreted as ordinary chat content at exactly the point where the UI should recognize it as a local control command.

The bad part is not only that clear fails — it is that the fallback behavior creates new persistent state (/clear-named sessions). That means one mistaken routing decision turns into session-history pollution and makes the command look more destructive/confusing the more the user retries it.

So the expected behavior should be fail-safe:

• if /clear is recognized, execute the clear action in the active session
• if command handling is unavailable in that context, show an explicit error/state message
• do not silently reinterpret a slash command as prompt text and create a new chat artifact

Once slash commands can fall through into normal conversation/session creation paths, users lose trust in which inputs are control surfaces vs plain messages.

[paytience]

Can confirm this also doesnt work for claude-agent-acp running in Zed editor. So this doesn't just affect users on Windows vscode.

agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp#33 (comment)

Please support the slash commands in SDK like suggested.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.