/resume within active session cannot find any conversations (works from command line)

AI Disclaimer

This issue was researched and drafted using Claude Code (v2.1.37) powered by Claude Opus 4.6.

Bug Description

The /resume slash command within an active Claude Code session cannot find any conversations — both the picker (no arguments) and explicit session ID lookup fail. However, claude --resume from the command line works correctly with the same session IDs.

Environment

• OS: macOS (Darwin 23.6.0)
• Claude Code Version: 2.1.37
• Install method: Homebrew cask
• Shell: zsh

Steps to Attempt Repro

1. Start a Claude Code session in a project directory
2. Run /resume — reports no conversations found
3. Run /resume <session-id> with a known valid session ID — reports "Session was not found"
4. Exit the session
5. Run claude --resume <same-session-id> from the command line — works correctly

Evidence

The sessions-index.json file is intact with 10 conversation entries, and all corresponding .jsonl files exist on disk:

$ wc -l ~/.claude/projects/-Users-stuart-halloway-dev-nu/sessions-index.json
139

$ ls ~/.claude/projects/-Users-stuart-halloway-dev-nu/*.jsonl | wc -l
14

Both full and short session IDs fail within a session:

> /resume c402cb04-9cd1-4dc2-9c9c-7b438c8eb1c5
Session c402cb04-9cd1-4dc2-9c9c-7b438c8eb1c5 was not found.

> /resume c402cb04
Session c402cb04 was not found.

But from the command line:

$ claude --resume c402cb04-9cd1-4dc2-9c9c-7b438c8eb1c5
# Works — session loads successfully

Expected Behavior

/resume within a session should find the same conversations that claude --resume finds from the command line.

Related Issues

• #19995 — similar symptom (no conversations found) but on Linux, unclear if command-line resume was tested
• #24304 — history truncation after upgrade, different root cause