[UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR] VS Code "Open Folder" kills active conversation with no recovery - conversation not saved to past conversations

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?

Description:

Using File > Open Folder during an active Claude Code conversation in VS Code causes total loss of the conversation. The conversation does not appear in the past conversations list afterward.

Steps to reproduce:

Expected behavior:
At minimum, the conversation should be persisted to the past conversations list before the window reloads. Ideally the conversation would survive the reload entirely.

Actual behavior:
Conversation is permanently lost with no recovery path. No warning is shown before the reload destroys the session.

Impact:
This is silent data loss triggered by a routine IDE action. Users have no reason to expect that opening a folder will destroy their work. The past conversations feature creates a reasonable expectation that conversation state is durable.

Suggested fixes (any of):

Persist conversation state continuously or on a short interval, not just at clean shutdown
Hook into VS Code's onWillSaveState or Disposable lifecycle to flush state before window reload
Show a warning dialog when a window reload would kill an active conversation

What Should Happen?

Conversation should be saved to past conversations before VSCode reset

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Start a Claude Code conversation in VS Code
Work through a multi-step task (long context)
Use File > Open Folder to navigate to a different directory
VS Code reloads the window
Claude Code conversation is gone
Check past conversations — not listed

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code for VSCode v2.1.72

Platform

AWS Bedrock

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

_No response_