[FEATURE] Persist and display chat history across sessions (like Cursor)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Every time a new VS Code window opens or the window is reloaded, all chat history disappears from the UI. There is no way to browse or resume previous conversations from within the Claude Code interface.

This makes it difficult to:

• Reference what was discussed/decided in prior sessions
• Continue long-running tasks that span multiple sessions
• Avoid re-explaining context every time a window is reloaded

Proposed Solution

Expected Behavior

Chat history from previous sessions should be visible in the UI — similar to how Cursor handles it, where past conversations are listed in a sidebar and can be reopened/resumed.

The session JSONL files already exist on disk at ~/.claude/projects/. The data is there — the UI just doesn't surface it.

Suggested Solution

• Add a session history sidebar or dropdown showing past conversations per project
• Allow clicking a past session to view its history
• Optionally allow resuming from a past session

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

High - Significant impact on productivity

Feature Category

Interactive mode (TUI)

Use Case Example

_No response_

Additional Context

_No response_