[BUG] `--resume` should not require matching working directory

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?

Bug/UX Issue: --resume should not require matching working directory

When using claude --resume <session-id>, the command fails with No conversation found with session ID if the current working directory doesn't match the original project directory.

This is a bad design for two reasons:

1. Session IDs are globally unique. A unique ID should be sufficient to locate a session — the working directory requirement is an invisible constraint that's never mentioned in the error message. Users are left guessing why a valid session ID isn't found.

1. The error message is misleading. No conversation found implies the session doesn't exist, not that the directory is wrong. It should say something like: Session found but working directory does not match original project path: <path>

What Should Happen?

Expected: Either allow --resume to work globally by session ID, or surface the actual reason for the mismatch in the error message.

The VSCode extension makes this worse — there's no way to set the working directory manually, so sessions started in nested project structures are often unrecoverable through the extension.

Error Messages/Logs

claude --resume 993d5b90-966f-43aa-8e2c-56766613b735
No conversation found with session ID: 993d5b90-966f-43aa-8e2c-56766613b735

Steps to Reproduce

Repro:

• Start a session in directory A
• Close the terminal without exiting cleanly
• Try claude --resume <id> from directory B
• Get No conversation found with no useful diagnostic info

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.81

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_