Sessions not synced across Claude Code surfaces (CLI, desktop app, web)

[martin-claudecodes]

Summary

Sessions started in one Claude Code surface (e.g. the web app at claude.ai/code, or the CLI) do not appear in the Mac desktop app's conversation history, and vice versa. Each surface maintains a completely separate session list.

Expected behaviour

A session started in any Claude Code surface should be visible and continuable from any other surface when signed in to the same account.

Actual behaviour

Sessions are siloed per surface — CLI sessions don't appear in the desktop app, desktop app sessions don't appear in the web app, etc.

Impact

Users lose continuity when switching between surfaces mid-session (e.g. starting work in the web app and wanting to continue in the desktop app).

Environment

• Mac desktop app
• CLI (claude)
• Web app (claude.ai/code)

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [FEATURE] Sync conversation history between CLI and Claude Code desktop app #28791
2. [Feature Request] Sync CLI sessions to Desktop app Recents #57210
3. Unified sessions, settings & projects across Desktop, Mobile and CLI #42050

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[kcarriedo]

Worth distinguishing two flavors of this problem because the fix surfaces are quite different:

(a) The conversation-history listing is per-surface. The "I started a session on the web app and want to see it in the desktop history" UX. This is fixable with a synced index — surfaces enumerate from a shared account-scoped session list rather than from local on-disk state.

(b) The conversation state — in-flight tool calls, partially-applied edits, queued background agents, hooks state, permission grants — is per-process. Even if surface A can see surface B's session in a list, continuing it from a different surface is much harder, because most of what makes the session resumable lives in the running process: open file descriptors for Edit deltas, in-memory permission decisions for this session's tool grants, the conversation transcript with the right ordering of subagent branches (which is already a known footgun — see #33651), and any --cwd / worktree binding established at session start.

If only (a) ships, the desktop app will show CLI sessions in its list, but tapping one will either (i) re-instantiate a fresh process and replay the transcript (losing tool state and any worktree binding), or (ii) RPC into the originating surface's process (which is fragile if that surface is offline / the laptop is closed).

The version of this that's actually useful is the version that treats session state as a first-class durable object that any surface can attach to: a coordinator process owns the session, surfaces are thin views over it, and "switching surfaces" is just attaching a new view. That's a significantly bigger lift than syncing a sidebar list, but it's also the only shape that makes the worktree-binding / hook-state / queued-background-agent cases work, and those are increasingly common as more people run agents in worktrees and the agent view becomes the daily UX.

Curious whether the request here is really (a) — "show me everywhere I've worked recently" — or (b) — "let me pick up where I left off regardless of surface". Different feature with different cost.

[github-actions]

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.