Desktop app cannot import CLI session: 'transcript has no cwd'

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 15, 2026 by wilkes Closed May 25, 2026

Description

When attempting to open a CLI session transcript in the Claude Code desktop app, the import fails with:

CLI session <session-id> transcript has no cwd — cannot import

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Run a Claude Code CLI session in a project directory
  2. Attempt to open/import that session in the Claude Code desktop app

Root Cause

The transcript .jsonl file's first record is a file-history-snapshot type with no cwd field:

{
  "type": "file-history-snapshot",
  "messageId": "...",
  "snapshot": {
    "messageId": "...",
    "trackedFileBackups": {},
    "timestamp": "2026-04-14T20:54:58.699Z"
  },
  "isSnapshotUpdate": false
}

The cwd field does exist on attachment type records deeper in the file, but the desktop app appears to look for it in a metadata/init record at the start of the transcript and fails when it's not found.

Expected Behavior

The desktop app should either:

  • Look for cwd in any record type (e.g., the first attachment record), or
  • Gracefully handle missing cwd by prompting the user to select a working directory

Environment

  • Claude Code CLI (latest)
  • Claude Code Desktop (macOS)
  • macOS Darwin 25.3.0

View original on GitHub ↗

This issue has 2 comments on GitHub. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗