fix(cli): preserve legacy auto memory behavior

[jasonmatthewsuhari]

Fixes #25623

Summary

Restore backward-compatible Auto Memory behavior for existing users who only have experimental.memoryManager = true in settings.

What changed

• Add a CLI-load compatibility fallback so experimentalAutoMemory inherits from experimental.memoryManager only when experimental.autoMemory is not explicitly set.
• Preserve explicit opt-out behavior when experimental.autoMemory = false.
• Add regression tests covering both the legacy compatibility case and the explicit override case.

Why

After the flag split, existing users could still have the memory manager enabled but lose /memory inbox access and background Auto Memory startup unless they manually added the new flag. This restores the old behavior for legacy configs without collapsing the new flag split.

Testing

• node scripts/generate-git-commit-info.js
• C:\Users\Jason\Documents\GitHub\gemini-cli\node_modules\.bin\vitest.cmd run src/config/config.test.ts --coverage.enabled=false
• C:\Users\Jason\Documents\GitHub\gemini-cli\node_modules\.bin\vitest.cmd run src/ui/commands/memoryCommand.test.ts --coverage.enabled=false

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request addresses a regression introduced by a recent flag split in the CLI configuration. It restores the expected behavior for legacy users who relied on the memory manager to implicitly enable auto-memory features, while maintaining the ability for users to explicitly opt-out of these features.

Highlights

• Backward Compatibility: Implemented a fallback mechanism in the CLI configuration loader to ensure that experimentalAutoMemory inherits the value of experimental.memoryManager when not explicitly defined.
• Explicit Override Preservation: Ensured that users who have explicitly set experimental.autoMemory to false retain that configuration, preventing the fallback from overriding their preference.
• Regression Testing: Added new test cases to verify both the legacy compatibility behavior and the correct handling of explicit configuration overrides.

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request implements backward compatibility for the autoMemory configuration flag by falling back to the memoryManager setting when autoMemory is not explicitly defined. While the logic and tests are added, the reviewer noted a potential issue: if the configuration schema defines a default value for autoMemory, the nullish coalescing operator will not trigger the fallback. The current tests use a delete operation to simulate an undefined state, which suggests that the schema or the implementation should be refined to ensure the legacy behavior is correctly restored without workarounds.

[jasonmatthewsuhari]

Addressed the Gemini Code Assist findings in two follow-up commits. The compatibility fix now happens during settings merge, where we can still distinguish an explicit experimental.autoMemory setting from a schema defaulted value, and the regression coverage now goes through loadSettings() instead of deleting a field from a synthetic merged object. Verified with
px vitest run packages/cli/src/config/settings.test.ts packages/cli/src/config/config.test.ts.

[jasonmatthewsuhari]

/gemini review

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request introduces backward compatibility for memory management settings. It adds a hasOwnNestedProperty helper to detect if experimental.autoMemory has been explicitly configured in any settings source. In the mergeSettings function, if autoMemory is not explicitly set but the legacy memoryManager is enabled, autoMemory is now automatically enabled. Unit tests have been added to ensure this logic works correctly and that explicit overrides are respected. I have no feedback to provide.