---
title: "claude-mem Silently Fails with Claude Code 2.1+ (Empty --setting-sources)"
domain: troubleshooting
category: claude-code
tags: [claude-code, claude-mem, cli, subprocess, version-mismatch, shim]
status: published
created: 2026-04-17
updated: 2026-04-17
---

# claude-mem Silently Fails with Claude Code 2.1+ (Empty `--setting-sources`)

## Symptom

After installing the `claude-mem` plugin (v12.1.3) in Claude Code (v2.1.112), every Claude Code session starts with:

```
No previous sessions found for this project yet.
```

…even for directories where you've worked repeatedly. Session records *do* appear in `~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db` (table `sdk_sessions`), but:

- `session_summaries` count stays at **0**
- `observations` count stays at **0**
- Chroma vector DB stays empty

Tailing `~/.claude-mem/logs/claude-mem-YYYY-MM-DD.log` shows the Stop hook firing on every assistant turn, but always:

```
[HOOK  ] → Stop: Requesting summary {hasLastAssistantMessage=true}
[HOOK  ] Summary processing complete {waitedMs=503, summaryStored=null}
```

No errors, no stack traces — just a silent `null`. Raising `CLAUDE_MEM_LOG_LEVEL` to `DEBUG` reveals the true error:

```
[WARN ] [SDK_SPAWN] Claude process exited {code=1, signal=null, pid=…}
[ERROR] [SESSION] Generator failed {provider=claude, error=Claude Code process exited with code 1}
```

## Root cause

`claude-mem` 12.1.3 spawns the `claude` CLI as a subprocess to generate per-turn observations and session summaries. The argv it passes includes:

```
claude --output-format stream-json --verbose --input-format stream-json \
       --model claude-sonnet-4-6 \
       --disallowedTools Bash,Read,Write,… \
       --setting-sources \               ← no value!
       --permission-mode default
```

`claude-mem` intends to pass `--setting-sources ""` (empty string, meaning "no sources"). Claude Code **v2.1.x** now validates this flag and rejects empty values — it requires one of `user`, `project`, or `local`. With no value present, the CLI's argument parser consumes the next flag (`--permission-mode`) as the value and produces:

```
Error processing --setting-sources: Invalid setting source: --permission-mode.
Valid options are: user, project, local
```

The child process exits immediately with code 1 (within ~130 ms). `claude-mem` only logs `exited with code 1` and discards stderr by default, which is why the failure looks silent.

This is a **version-mismatch bug** between `claude-mem` 12.1.3 (latest as of 2026-04-17) and `claude-code` 2.1.x. Earlier Claude Code releases accepted empty values.

## Investigation path

1. Confirm worker processes are alive:
   ```bash
   pgrep -fl "worker-service|mcp-server.cjs|chroma-mcp"
   cat ~/.claude-mem/supervisor.json
   ```
2. Confirm sessions are being *recorded* but not *summarised*:
   ```bash
   sqlite3 ~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db \
     "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM sdk_sessions;  -- nonzero
      SELECT COUNT(*) FROM session_summaries;  -- 0 = pipeline broken
      SELECT COUNT(*) FROM observations;       -- 0 = pipeline broken"
   ```
3. Grep the log for `summaryStored=null` — if every Stop hook ends in `null`, summarisation is failing.
4. Raise log level to expose the real error:
   ```bash
   # In ~/.claude-mem/settings.json
   "CLAUDE_MEM_LOG_LEVEL": "DEBUG"
   ```
   Kill and respawn workers (`pkill -f worker-service.cjs`). New logs should show `SDK_SPAWN Claude process exited {code=1}`.
5. Capture the exact argv by replacing `CLAUDE_CODE_PATH` with a debug shim that logs `$@` before exec'ing the real binary (see the fix below for the production shim — the debug version just tees argv to a log file).

## The fix

Apply in this order.

### 1. Fix the settings `claude-mem` ships with empty

Edit `~/.claude-mem/settings.json`:

```json
{
  "CLAUDE_CODE_PATH": "/Users/you/.local/bin/claude-shim",
  "CLAUDE_MEM_TIER_SUMMARY_MODEL": "claude-sonnet-4-6"
}
```

Both ship empty in a fresh install. `CLAUDE_CODE_PATH` points at the shim (below), not the real binary. `CLAUDE_MEM_TIER_SUMMARY_MODEL` is required when `CLAUDE_MEM_TIER_ROUTING_ENABLED=true`.

### 2. Install the shim

`/Users/you/.local/bin/claude-shim`:

```bash
#!/bin/bash
# Workaround shim for claude-mem 12.1.3 <-> Claude Code 2.1.x incompat.
# claude-mem passes `--setting-sources` with no value; Claude CLI 2.1+ rejects
# empty and consumes the next flag as the value. Fix: inject "user" when missing.

REAL=/Users/you/.local/bin/claude

new_args=()
i=0
args=("$@")
while [ $i -lt ${#args[@]} ]; do
  cur="${args[$i]}"
  new_args+=("$cur")
  if [ "$cur" = "--setting-sources" ]; then
    next="${args[$((i+1))]}"
    case "$next" in
      user|project|local) : ;;   # already valid
      *) new_args+=("user") ;;   # inject missing value
    esac
  fi
  i=$((i+1))
done

exec "$REAL" "${new_args[@]}"
```

Chmod it executable: `chmod +x ~/.local/bin/claude-shim`.

### 3. Restart workers

```bash
pkill -f "worker-service.cjs --daemon"
```

They respawn automatically on the next Claude Code hook fire. Verify:

```bash
# Within ~15 s:
sqlite3 ~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM observations;"
# Should be growing as you continue the session.
```

### 4. Sanity-check the shim is being used

```bash
ps -eww | grep -F 'setting-sources user'
```

Every live `claude` child should have `--setting-sources user` in its argv, not a bare `--setting-sources`.

## Why a shim instead of patching `claude-mem`

The offending code is inside the minified `worker-service.cjs` bundle shipped by `@anthropic-ai/claude-code` SDK, which `claude-mem` vendors. Patching the bundle is possible but fragile: any `claude-mem` update overwrites it. The shim is a one-file wrapper at a stable path, survives plugin updates, and becomes a no-op the moment upstream ships a fix.

## When to remove the shim

Check for a newer `claude-mem` release or an Anthropic SDK update that stops passing `--setting-sources` with an empty value. Test by:

1. Point `CLAUDE_CODE_PATH` back at the real `/Users/you/.local/bin/claude`.
2. Restart workers.
3. Confirm `observations` count keeps growing.

If it does, remove the shim. If not, restore the shim path and wait for a later release.

## Related

- Install notes: `20-Projects/Personal-Tasks.md` — "Install claude-mem plugin on MajorMac — 2026-04-15"
- Config file: `~/.claude-mem/settings.json`
- Logs: `~/.claude-mem/logs/claude-mem-YYYY-MM-DD.log`
- DB: `~/.claude-mem/claude-mem.db` (SQLite, FTS5 enabled)