[BUG] Deleting chats from the sidebar permanently erases all-time usage stats and heatmap history (desktop app home stats widget)

Preflight Checklist

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

What's Wrong?

The usage stats widget on the Claude desktop app home screen ("What's up next" → Overview, range All) loses history when chats are deleted from the sidebar.

• I use Claude every day.
• On the morning of Oct 8, 2026 the widget showed noticeably higher numbers and a much fuller activity heatmap.
• I then deleted some chats from the sidebar. Immediately afterwards Sessions, Messages, Total tokens, Active days and the heatmap all dropped.
• Values after deletion: Sessions 48 · Messages 26,313 · Total tokens 4.7B · Active days 24 · Peak hour 9 AM · Favorite model Opus 5 — "Active days 24" is far below my real daily usage.
• Many heatmap cells are now empty on days I definitely used Claude (e.g. hovering a cell shows "May 18 — 0"), while a few days look heavily filled.

So "All"-time stats are not a record of usage — they are recomputed only from chats that currently still exist. Deleting a conversation retroactively erases the fact that I used the product on those days, and there is no way to get it back.

This seems to share a root cause with #76885 (activity is credited to the session start date, so one long-running session can "own" many days — deleting it blanks all of them at once). That issue is about mis-bucketing; this report is specifically about user-initiated chat deletion destroying historical stats.

What Should Happen?

• All-time usage stats (Sessions, Messages, Total tokens, Active days, streaks, heatmap) should be a persistent record that is not reduced when a chat is deleted from the sidebar. Deleting a conversation's content shouldn't erase the record that the product was used on those days.
• Activity should be bucketed by message timestamps, not by session start date, so Active days / heatmap reflect the days messages were actually exchanged.
• If the current behavior is intentional, the widget should at least say that stats only cover chats that still exist, and the delete-chat confirmation should warn that it will lower usage stats.

Error Messages/Logs

No error message — the numbers silently drop after deleting chats.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use the Claude desktop app daily for a while, including some chats that stay open across multiple days.
2. Open the home screen ("What's up next") → stats widget → Overview, range All. Note Sessions, Messages, Total tokens, Active days and the heatmap.
3. Delete one or more chats from the sidebar (preferably a long-running one).
4. Return to the home screen stats widget.
5. Observe: all counters are lower and the heatmap cells for every day those chats covered are now empty ("<date> — 0"), even though you used Claude on those days.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude desktop app 2.26454.2 (Electron 44.4.3), macOS arm64 — stats widget on the app home screen

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

• Surface: Claude desktop app home screen stats widget (Overview / Models tabs, All · 30d · 7d), not the CLI.
• Environment: Claude desktop app 2.26454.2 (Electron 44.4.3), macOS on Apple Silicon (arm64). Terminal field set to "Other" because this happens in the desktop app UI, not a terminal.
• Related: #76885 (heatmap credits activity to session start date; also notes automatic transcript cleanup blanks days retroactively). This report covers the manual "delete chat" path, which users do routinely to tidy the sidebar.