Claude Code Session Restorer — fix missing sessions in the Claude Desktop "Code" tab

Restore Claude Code chat sessions that disappeared from the Claude Desktop "Code" tab — most commonly after logging in with a different Claude account, or for sessions you started from the CLI / VS Code that never showed up in the app. A safe, reversible Windows PowerShell tool (also packaged as a Claude skill).

TL;DR — Your conversations were never deleted. The Code tab just can't see them because its session list is stored per account. This rebuilds the list for the account you're currently logged into. Run it with Claude Desktop closed.

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What's included

Script	Use it when
restore-code-tab-sessions.ps1	Your transcripts exist but don't show in the Code tab (you switched accounts, or started sessions from the CLI / VS Code). Rebuilds the per-account session index.
claude-code-backup-restore.ps1	You want a full backup of your transcripts + index (disaster recovery, new machine, before reinstalling, or to beat the 30-day auto-cleanup) — and to restore it anywhere.

The problem

You open Claude Desktop, switch to the Code tab… and most of your sessions are gone. This typically happens when:

• you logged into a different Claude account (the Code tab only lists the current account's sessions);
• you logged out and back in, or reinstalled;
• you started sessions from the claude CLI or the VS Code extension, and they never appeared in the desktop app.

The conversations themselves are not lost — only the app's index of them.

Why it happens

Claude Code stores every conversation as a transcript on disk:

%USERPROFILE%\.claude\projects\<encoded-working-dir>\<sessionId>.jsonl

These transcripts are keyed by project folder and carry no account information — switching accounts never touches them.

But the Code tab doesn't read those transcripts directly. It reads small per-session "card" files, stored per account:

%APPDATA%\Claude\claude-code-sessions\<accountId>\<organizationId>\local_*.json

Each card points back to a transcript via a cliSessionId field. The cards contain no account field — they're scoped purely by which account folder they live in. So:

• sessions created under another account sit in that account's folder → invisible now;
• sessions started from the CLI / VS Code often have no card at all → never listed.

What this tool does

Run with Claude Desktop closed, it will (all idempotent and reversible):

1. Back up the entire Code-tab card index first.
2. Copy cards that exist under other account folders into your current account's folder.
3. Generate fresh cards for transcripts that have no card anywhere — reading each session's real title straight from its transcript (aiTitle).

It auto-detects your currently logged-in account from .claude.json, so you don't pass any IDs. Re-running is safe — it never creates duplicates.

Usage

1. Quit Claude Desktop completely. Also check the system tray → right-click → Quit. (The app rewrites this folder when it exits, so it must be closed.)

2. Open PowerShell and run:

   powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\restore-code-tab-sessions.ps1

3. Reopen Claude Desktop → Code tab. Your sessions should be listed.

Options

Flag	Effect
-ExistingCardsOnly	Only migrate sessions originally created in the desktop Code tab (copy existing cards from other accounts). Skips CLI / VS Code sessions. Use this when moving between accounts and you don't want CLI sessions cluttering the list.
-DestRoot <path>	Write cards to a throwaway folder instead of the live one (dry run / testing).
-IgnoreRunning	Don't abort if Claude appears to be running.
-NoBackup	Skip the index backup (testing only).

Example — migrate only real Code-tab sessions between accounts:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\restore-code-tab-sessions.ps1 -ExistingCardsOnly

Is it safe? Can I undo it?

• Backup first: before writing anything, it copies the whole index to …\claude-code-sessions_backup_<timestamp>.
• Non-destructive: it only adds cards; it never edits or deletes your transcripts.
• To undo: delete the cards it added (or restore the _backup_ folder over claude-code-sessions), then restart Claude Desktop.

It's also wise to back up %USERPROFILE%\.claude\projects (your actual transcripts) once, independent of this tool.

A note on transcript retention

Claude Code auto-deletes old transcripts after a number of days (cleanupPeriodDays, default 30). To keep history longer, add this to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\settings.json:

{ "cleanupPeriodDays": 3650 }

Full backup & restore (the "everything" tool)

claude-code-backup-restore.ps1 backs up and restores everything that matters — your transcripts (%USERPROFILE%\.claude\projects), the Code-tab index, and settings.json. Transcripts carry no account info, so a backup restores cleanly under any account, on any machine.

Back up (creates claude-code-backup_<timestamp>\ under the path you choose; defaults to your user folder):

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\claude-code-backup-restore.ps1 -Path D:\Backups

Restore (merges; it never deletes, and won't overwrite a newer local file unless you pass -Force):

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\claude-code-backup-restore.ps1 -Restore -Path "D:\Backups\claude-code-backup_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS"

Close Claude Desktop before restoring the Code-tab index (the script skips it automatically if Claude is running). Options: -TranscriptsOnly, -Force, -IgnoreRunning. After restoring under a different account, run restore-code-tab-sessions.ps1 to make the sessions appear in the Code tab.

Resuming without the app

Independently of the Code tab, you can always resume on the command line. From the project's folder:

claude --resume            # pick from a list
claude --resume <sessionId>
claude --continue          # most recent session in this folder

The resume list is scoped to the current folder, not the account.

Use as a Claude skill

This repo doubles as a Claude skill — see SKILL.md. Drop the folder into your skills directory and Claude can run the restore for you when you say things like "my Claude Code sessions disappeared after switching accounts."

Compatibility

• Windows + Windows PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7.
• macOS / Linux use the same card concept under different paths (e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/… on macOS). Ports/PRs welcome.

How it works (technical)

A Code-tab card (local_<desktopId>.json) is a small JSON object. The fields that matter:

Field	Meaning
sessionId	The desktop card id (local_<guid>), also the filename.
cliSessionId	The transcript id — the <sessionId>.jsonl on disk. This is the link.
cwd / originCwd	Working directory of the session.
createdAt / lastActivityAt / lastFocusedAt	Epoch milliseconds.
title / titleSource	Display title (we use the transcript's aiTitle).
model, effort, permissionMode, isArchived	Session settings.
remoteMcpServersConfig	Cached MCP server config (cloned from an existing card).

To surface a transcript, the tool ensures a card with the matching cliSessionId exists in the current account's folder — copying it from another account when one exists, or building a fresh one (UTF‑8, no BOM) when it doesn't.

Disclaimer

Unofficial, community tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. It works with on-disk files whose format was determined by observation and may change between app versions. It backs up before writing and is reversible, but you use it at your own risk.

License

MIT