RCA-2026-03-27-002: Prevention

Prevention

Checklist for Credential Vault Symlinks

  • Always use ls -la (not ls -l) to see hidden files

  • Check for dot-prefixed variants of config files

  • Test isolation by unmounting vault and verifying failure

  • Document both the settings file AND auth file locations

find Command Lesson (CLI Mastery)

During investigation, a find syntax error was identified:

# WRONG - orphaned argument
find /path -type d "claude"

# CORRECT - use -name predicate
find /path -type d -name "claude"
find /path -name "*.json" -type f
find /path -iname "claude"  # case-insensitive

Lessons Learned

Category Lesson

Hidden files

Always check for dot-prefixed variants when working with credential/config files

Vault architecture

Test the failure case (unmount) before considering setup complete

Claude Code internals

OAuth tokens stored separately from account metadata for security isolation

find syntax

Predicates (-name, -type) require flags - bare arguments are syntax errors

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