Feature: Workspace-level session save/restore (multi-session persistence)

Problem

Power users running multiple Claude Code sessions simultaneously (5-10+ tabs across multiple terminal windows) lose their entire workspace layout after system reboots. Restoring requires manually:

1. Opening the correct number of terminal windows with the right tab count
2. Navigating to the correct working directory in each tab
3. Using claude --resume and finding the correct session ID for each tab

This is particularly painful on Windows where automatic restarts (Windows Update) are common and unavoidable.

Current workarounds

• claude --resume <session-id> works for individual sessions but requires knowing which session was where
• ~/.claude/sessions/<PID>.json provides PID→sessionId mapping but only while processes are alive
• No built-in way to snapshot or restore a multi-session workspace

Proposed solution

claude workspace save [name]

Snapshots all currently running Claude Code sessions:

• Session IDs
• Working directories
• Terminal window/tab grouping (via process tree)
• Optional: session display names

Saves to ~/.claude/workspaces/<name>.json

claude workspace restore [name]

Restores a saved workspace:

• Opens terminal windows with the correct tab layout
• Runs claude --resume <session-id> in each tab
• Restores working directories

claude workspace list

Lists saved workspaces with session counts and last-saved timestamps.

Auto-save option

claude workspace autosave --interval 5m — periodic snapshots for crash recovery.

Why this matters

As Claude Code becomes a primary development tool, users naturally accumulate multiple long-running sessions for different concerns (debugging, feature work, research, DevOps, etc.). The inability to persist this workspace state is the #1 friction point after unexpected reboots.

Technical notes

• Session persistence data already exists in ~/.claude/projects/ and ~/.claude/sessions/
• Windows Terminal CLI (wt) supports programmatic window/tab creation
• On macOS/Linux, tmux or similar could be used for restore
• The grouping of sessions into windows can be determined from the process tree (terminal → shell → node)

Environment

• Claude Code 2.1.76+
• Windows 11 / macOS / Linux
• Windows Terminal / iTerm2 / any terminal emulator with CLI

Related issues

• #35005 — session restore in VS Code webview
• #33130 — lost chats after restart
• #9258 — history sessions lost

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Authored with Claude Code — the irony of using the tool to request the feature that would make the tool more usable is not lost on me.