[BUG] Desktop app "Local" sessions filter doesn't show CLI sessions

[cochinescu]

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The Desktop app's Code tab has a "Local" environment filter for sessions, but it doesn't display sessions created via the claude CLI command in terminal.

I have 96 valid sessions stored in ~/.claude/projects/<project>/sessions-index.json. These sessions:

• Work correctly with claude --resume in terminal
• Are valid JSON with proper structure (sessionId, fullPath, summary, messageCount, created, modified, etc.)

When I open the Desktop app Code tab and filter by Environment → "Local", only 1 session appears - the one created from the Desktop app. The 96 CLI sessions are completely invisible.

The Desktop app appears to have its own separate session tracking instead of reading from the shared sessions-index.json.

What Should Happen?

The "Local" filter should show ALL local sessions stored in ~/.claude/projects/, regardless of whether they were created from:

• Terminal CLI (claude command)
• Desktop app
• VS Code extension

If there's a "Local" filter option, it should display local sessions.

Error Messages/Logs

"Could not load cloud sessions." sometimes appears at the top of the sessions sidebar, but this shouldn't affect local sessions.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open terminal in a project directory
2. Run claude to start a CLI session, have a conversation, exit
3. Repeat a few times to create multiple sessions
4. Verify sessions exist: ls ~/.claude/projects/-<your-project-path>/sessions-index.json
5. Open Claude Desktop app
6. Go to Code tab
7. Click filter dropdown → Environment → "Local"
8. Observe: Only sessions created from Desktop app appear; CLI sessions are missing

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.20 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Warp

Additional Information

No response

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. IDE integration not displaying past sessions in sessions panel #22645
2. [BUG] Past Conversations not showing in VSCode extension despite valid sessions-index.json #22215
3. [BUG] No Way to Access Past Conversions in VS Code Extension #16290

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

• If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
• To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[cochinescu]

This is NOT a duplicate of the listed issues.

Those issues (#22645, #22215, #16290) are about the VSCode extension not showing sessions.

This bug is about the Claude Desktop app's Code tab - specifically the "Local" environment filter not displaying sessions created via the claude CLI command in terminal.

Different interface, different bug:

• VSCode extension → covered by IDE integration not displaying past sessions in sessions panel #22645, [BUG] Past Conversations not showing in VSCode extension despite valid sessions-index.json #22215, [BUG] No Way to Access Past Conversions in VS Code Extension #16290
• Desktop app "Local" filter → THIS issue

The Desktop app has a "Local" filter option that implies it should show local sessions, but it only shows sessions created from the Desktop app itself, not CLI sessions stored in the same ~/.claude/projects/ directory.

[JiraiyaETH]

Additional data point: Archived filter also broken

Experiencing the same core issue, plus an additional variant: the "Archived" status filter returns "No sessions found" even though archived sessions exist and their metadata is correct.

Environment

• Desktop app: v1.1.2512
• CLI: v2.1.29
• macOS Darwin 25.2.0

Investigation findings

The per-session metadata files in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<account>/<org>/ correctly have isArchived: true set (130 of 135 sessions are archived). But when filtering by Archived + Local in the sidebar, the app shows "No sessions found."

Data is intact — all 135 metadata JSON files are present and valid, and 723 .jsonl transcript files exist in ~/.claude/projects/. The issue is purely in the UI's session list rendering.

What was checked

1. Metadata files: isArchived field is correctly set to true/false
2. sessions-index.json: read by CLI but not by Desktop app sidebar
3. LevelDB (Local Storage/leveldb/): LSS-cached-sessions contains cloud sessions only (no local sessions cached there), ccd-session-store only stores current environmentId/folder selection
4. No SQLite or other index files found that the app uses for the local session list

This suggests the Desktop app has a rendering/query bug in its session list component when filtering by archived status for local sessions.

[brtkwr]

I concur. Codex supports this feature out of the box. Claude is falling behind in the game. CLI and Desktop Claude Code should share the same view of sessions.

[0xriyadh]

I concur. Codex supports this feature out of the box. Claude is falling behind in the game. CLI and Desktop Claude Code should share the same view of sessions.

agreed, facing similar issue. Not expected

[nhblock]

@cochinescu is this helpful at all? I just ran across it reading through the docs. Does your CLI session get 'shared' with Desktop if you run /desktop?

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop#coming-from-the-cli

[cochinescu]

Good find, thanks, however it's only transferring sessions one by one, it's not optimal...

@cochinescu is this helpful at all? I just ran across it reading through the docs. Does your CLI session get 'shared' with Desktop if you run /desktop?

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop#coming-from-the-cli

[amorriscode]

This is not a bug per se but the way app works today. Hopefully have something out in the next week or so to improve this but closing this out as it is not a bug.