Renaming a project folder orphans prior sessions ("No conversation found with session ID")

Environment

• Claude Code desktop app
• macOS 26.3 (Tahoe), Apple Silicon
• Model: Opus 4.7 1M

What happened

I renamed a project folder from ~/Claude Root/Cowork to ~/Claude Root/dghq. After reopening the desktop app and selecting any session from the Recents list that had been created under the old path, the app returned:

Claude Code returned an error result: No conversation found with session ID: 475672e6-8e2b-4be0-8fd4-07308af8ed90

Every prior session for that project was unreachable. Restoring the original folder name made them work again.

Suspected root cause

Session storage under ~/.claude/projects/ is keyed by a path-derived slug (e.g. -Volumes-Carter-Users-jde-Claude-Root-Cowork). Renaming the project folder changes the slug the app looks under, so sessions written under the old slug are orphaned — the session files still exist on disk, the app just doesn't look there anymore.

Expected behavior

Resuming a session by ID should work regardless of the project's current path — either the app should look up by session ID directly, or it should detect the rename and migrate / re-key the project directory.

Reproduction

1. Open a project at path A; accumulate a few sessions.
2. Quit the desktop app; rename the folder to path B.
3. Reopen the desktop app and click a prior session in Recents.
4. No conversation found with session ID: …

Workarounds (both poor)

• Rename back: wastes all the coordination work that motivated the rename (remote git server, tooling, docs, Syncthing peer).
• Symlink at the old path pointing to the new one: fragile — Syncthing, backup tooling, and cross-machine setups don't all play nicely with the indirection, and the symlink has to live outside any synced folder.

In my case I abandoned the rename entirely because of this bug.