[DOCS] Resume docs missing stale large session summary behavior

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/common-workflows

Section/Topic

Resume previous conversations / Use the session picker

Current Documentation

The docs currently say:

claude --continue continues the most recent conversation in the current directory claude --resume opens a conversation picker or resumes by name * claude --from-pr 123 resumes sessions linked to a specific pull request From inside an active session, use /resume to switch to a different conversation.

They also say:

The /resume command (or claude --resume without arguments) opens an interactive session picker with these features:

And elsewhere:

* Conversation summarization: Background jobs that summarize previous conversations for the claude --resume feature

None of these pages explain the user-visible behavior where stale, large sessions can trigger an offer to summarize before Claude Code re-reads the full transcript, or that /resume now matches the existing --resume flow.

What's Wrong or Missing?

Changelog v2.1.117 says:

The /resume command now offers to summarize stale, large sessions before re-reading them, matching the existing --resume behavior

The current resume documentation covers picker navigation, naming, and basic resume commands, but it does not document this stale/large-session summary flow.

That leaves out several user-relevant details:

1. that claude --resume already had this behavior,
2. that /resume now does too,
3. when Claude Code offers summarization instead of immediately re-reading the full session, and
4. why a user might choose summarization first (for example, to avoid re-reading a large stale transcript).

Suggested Improvement

Add a short subsection under Resume previous conversations explaining the stale-session summary behavior for both /resume and claude --resume.

Suggested outline:

Large or stale sessions When resuming an older or very large session, Claude Code may offer to summarize the session before re-reading the full transcript. This helps you get back to work faster when full transcript reload would be expensive or slow. The same behavior applies whether you resume from the picker with /resume or from the CLI with claude --resume.

Also add a brief note in the /resume command reference and --resume CLI flag reference so users can discover this behavior without reading the full workflow page.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Affected Pages:

| Page | Context |
|------|---------|
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/common-workflows | Main Resume previous conversations workflow and session picker behavior |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/commands | /resume [session] command reference |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/cli-reference | --resume, -r flag reference |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/quickstart | First-use guidance that tells users to use /resume to continue a previous conversation |
| https://code.claude.com/docs/en/costs | Mentions claude --resume conversation summarization without explaining the user-facing resume flow |

Total scope: 5 pages affected

Source: Changelog v2.1.117

Exact changelog entry: The /resume command now offers to summarize stale, large sessions before re-reading them, matching the existing --resume behavior