Clear command doesn’t clear anything

[atljoseph]

Issue

With aider open, if I type /clear, nothing is cleared until the cli is closed and restarted. Can just run /clear and then ask something with a clean slate. Based on the reaction of the model, there are some context dingleberries there somewhere. Works better after clearing and closing. Curious what the clear command is intended for if one has to exit and come back in anyways.

Version and model info

Latest.

[paul-gauthier]

Thanks for trying aider and filing this issue.

What makes you think /clear isn't working? You can run aider --verbose to see exactly what aider is sending to the LLM, to check that /clear is (or isn't) working.

[atljoseph]

Because after using clear command the model+aider’s behavior doesn’t change until AFTER the cli is restarted with ctrl-C. Can ask same question and get wildly different answers (answers that seem to imply availability of the conversational context that had presumably been cleared). Haven’t tried the debugging yet. Might tonight or next weekend.

…

On Sun, Aug 11, 2024 at 1:20 PM paul-gauthier ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for trying aider and filing this issue. What makes you think /clear isn't working? You can run aider --verbose to see exactly what aider is sending to the LLM, to check that /clear is (or isn't) working. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1060 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AF632FOZ7JKUBPRXJMJHSHTZQ6MM5AVCNFSM6AAAAABMK3WLQ2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDEOBSHAZDSOJSGQ> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[paul-gauthier]

Sorry, I'm not sure I can conclude that /clear isn't working based on that description.

You can see in this log with --verbose that the first chat message is not sent to the LLM after the /clear command:

$ aider --no-git --verbose --mini

...

Aider v0.49.2-dev
Model: gpt-4o-mini with whole edit format
Git repo: none
Repo-map: disabled
Use /help <question> for help, run "aider --help" to see cmd line args
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> hello, this is my first chat message


SYSTEM Act as an expert software developer.
...


USER hello, this is my first chat message

...

Hello! How can I assist you today? If you have any code or requests for changes, feel free to
share!


Tokens: 645 sent, 24 received. Cost: $0.00011 request, $0.00011 session.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> /clear

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> this is my second chat message


SYSTEM Act as an expert software developer.

...

USER this is my second chat message

SYSTEM
Understood! Please let me know if you have any specific requests or changes you'd like to make
to your code, and I'll be ready to assist you

[atljoseph]

Sure. That’s why I’m asking you about it, And providing a clarification that was requested. Thank you for the next steps.

…

On Sun, Aug 11, 2024 at 1:35 PM paul-gauthier ***@***.***> wrote: Sorry, I'm not sure I can conclude that /clear isn't working based on that description. You can see in this log with --verbose that the first chat message is not sent to the LLM after the /clear command: $ aider --no-git --verbose --mini ... Aider v0.49.2-dev Model: gpt-4o-mini with whole edit format Git repo: none Repo-map: disabled Use /help <question> for help, run "aider --help" to see cmd line args ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > hello, this is my first chat message SYSTEM Act as an expert software developer. ... USER hello, this is my first chat message ... Hello! How can I assist you today? If you have any code or requests for changes, feel free to share! Tokens: 645 sent, 24 received. Cost: $0.00011 request, $0.00011 session. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > /clear ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── > this is my second chat message SYSTEM Act as an expert software developer. ... USER this is my second chat message SYSTEM Understood! Please let me know if you have any specific requests or changes you'd like to make to your code, and I'll be ready to assist you — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1060 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AF632FIRWVWOQLRWZP5CLRDZQ6OGNAVCNFSM6AAAAABMK3WLQ2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDEOBSHAZTGOJVGA> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[paul-gauthier]

I'm going to close this issue for now, but feel free to add a comment here and I will re-open or file a new issue any time.

[bnn1]

@paul-gauthier could you please explain what does the /clear command actually do? i'm a bit confused because after running the command, the .aider.input.history and .aider.chat.history.md files are not cleared

[maliayas]

I don't know if the same issue but... In my case, after running /clear and then /ask A new message, Aider -unwantedly- would load previous history if the restore-chat-history feature was in use. That was because when the new coder was being created, previous coder's args were used as base.

I've created a PR as a fix to this: #4668