[BUG] /resume only shows ~5-10 recent sessions (regression persists in v2.1.81)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and found #26123 (closed) which tracks this exact bug cluster
• [x] This is a single bug report
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

/resume only displays approximately 5-10 of the most recent sessions, despite hundreds of .jsonl session files existing on disk. This is the same issue consolidated in #26123, which was closed but the bug persists in v2.1.81.

The session data is intact on disk — it's just not surfaced by the /resume picker.

What Should Happen?

/resume should list all previous sessions, not just the most recent handful.

Steps to Reproduce

# 1. Check how many sessions exist on disk
find ~/.claude/projects -name "*.jsonl" | wc -l

# 2. Run /resume and observe only ~5-10 sessions shown
claude --resume

# 3. Compare the counts — most sessions are missing from the picker

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version.

Last Working Version

2.1.29 (per #26123 community reports)

Claude Code Version

2.1.81 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

iTerm2

Additional Information

This is a continuation of #26123, which comprehensively documented three root causes:

1. sessions-index.json stopped being written (~Feb 4, 2026) — new sessions not indexed
2. /resume picker hardcoded to 10-session initial batch — load-more trigger depends on terminal height and often doesn't fire
3. Case-sensitive worktree path comparison (Windows-specific)

That issue was closed but the problem persists in v2.1.81. Opening a new issue as instructed by GitHub Actions since the original is closed.

Workarounds (from #26123):

• claude --resume <keyword> — bypasses the picker, searches all .jsonl files
• claude --resume <session-id> — direct resume by UUID