Gemini ignores directives to put /memory add "..." in specific GEMINI.md files

Open gitenstuff opened this issue 4 months ago • 1 comments

What happened?

Directives concerning Memories, /memory add, etc. are completely ignored when specified in global .gemini/GEMINI.md file.

# AI Configuration Files (GEMINI.md, CLAUDE.md, etc)
- Edits or new ai configuration files (GEMININ.md, CLAUDE.md, etc) must strictly follow the structure and format of this document.
- New entries must be put in proper section. 
- Edits and new entries must be compared with existing entries to ensure they are not redundant or conflicting.
- Conflicting entries must be brought to the attention to the user for remediation.
- Default memory config is ./.gemini/GEMINI.md (LOCAL to the current project workspace).
- When adding new memories (using save_memory or similar tools), ALWAYS write them to the LOCAL project's .gemini/GEMINI.md file (create it if it doesn't exist).
- NEVER write project-specific memories to the global ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md file.

Sometimes, after correcting the behaviour multiple times, prompts like ```Remember that ..." do work, though not consistently. the memory tool /memory add never follows the directives.

What did you expect to happen?

Conversational interaction and directives within global .gemini/GEMINI.md, or any GEMINI.md file within the hierarchy should be obeyed.

Client information

Client Information

Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.

> /about
CLI Version                                              0.18.4                                                                                                    │
│ Git Commit                                               2e8d7831c                                                                                                 │
│ Model                                                    auto                                                                                                      │
│ Sandbox                                                  no sandbox                                                                                                │
│ OS                                                       linux                                                                                                     │
│ Auth Method                                              OAuth

Login information

No response

Anything else we need to know?

I've tried dozens of ways to word the directives (with Gemini's help). -> Nothing works

Dec 01 '25 22:12 gitenstuff

Found possible duplicate issues:

#13852
#4827
#12738
#11799
#3479
#3606
#5275
#11193

If you believe this is not a duplicate, please remove the status/possible-duplicate label.

Dec 01 '25 22:12 gemini-cli[bot]