sessions-index.json not updated - claude -c fails to find sessions

Summary

sessions-index.json files are created with empty entries: [] and never updated, even though session .jsonl files are being written correctly. This causes claude -c (continue) to fail to find previous sessions.

Claude Code Version: 2.1.29
Platform: macOS Darwin 25.2.0

Affected Projects

| Project | Session Files | Index Entries | Status |
|---------|---------------|---------------|--------|
| georgesamuelson-com-website | 5 files (1.5MB main session) | 0 | ❌ Broken |
| ea-jorts | 11 files (multi-MB sessions) | 1 | ❌ Partial |
| bg-wayne-website | 47 files | 13 | ❌ Partial |
| mac-terminal | 5 files | 0 | ❌ Broken |

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start a new Claude Code session in a project directory
2. Have a conversation (verified: 459 messages recorded in .jsonl)
3. Exit cleanly with /exit
4. Run claude -c to continue

Expected: Previous session loads
Actual: "No sessions found" or starts fresh session

Technical Details

Session storage location:

~/.claude/projects/-Users-{user}-Projects-{project-name}/
├── sessions-index.json      # Created empty, never updated
├── {uuid}.jsonl             # Session data IS written correctly
└── {uuid}/                  # Subagent data exists

Evidence of bug:

# Index created at 18:11, never modified despite active sessions
$ stat sessions-index.json
"Feb  1 18:11:09 2026" "Feb  1 18:11:09 2026"  # birth = modify time

# But session file actively growing
$ ls -la *.jsonl
-rw------- 1.5M Feb  1 19:41 47d613a9-....jsonl  # 459 messages

Contents of broken index:

{
  "version": 1,
  "entries": [],
  "originalPath": "/Users/georgesamuelson/Projects/georgesamuelson-com-website"
}

Workaround

Manually rebuild index from .jsonl files by parsing each session file and creating index entries.

Impact

• Data NOT lost - all conversation history is in .jsonl files
• Resume broken - claude -c and claude --resume fail to find sessions
• Inconsistent - some projects work fine, others don't (possible race condition?)

Additional Context

• Some projects have working indexes while others in the same environment are broken
• Bug appears to be project-specific, not global
• Using Ghostty terminal
• Clean /exit used, not terminal close