Chat search omits Code chats currently open in other windows; no body-text index for Code chats

Resolved 💬 6 comments Opened Apr 26, 2026 by romankanevsky Closed Jun 16, 2026

Environment

  • Claude Desktop v2.1.119 (entrypoint claude-desktop)
  • OS: Windows 11

Issue 1: Code chats open in another Desktop window are excluded from search

The chat search dialog does not return a Claude Code chat when that chat is currently displayed in another Claude Desktop window/tab, even when searching for an exact unique string present in the chat title from a different window.

Reproduction

  1. Open Code chat A in window 1; its title contains a unique alphanumeric token (e.g. TICKET-A)
  2. Open a different Code chat in window 2
  3. From window 2, open chat search (Ctrl/Cmd+K) and query the unique token from chat A's title
  4. Expected: chat A appears as a top result
  5. Actual: chat A is absent; only unrelated fuzzy / Claude.ai cloud results are returned

Verified locally

  • Title is correctly persisted to ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-cwd>/<sessionId>.jsonl as multiple custom-title events
  • A control chat whose title contains TICKET-B (not open in any other window) is returned correctly by its title query
  • Two independent reproductions on same machine: one chat held by an active claude-desktop pid in ~/.claude/sessions/, and one chat without an active pidfile but visible in another Desktop window — both excluded from search

The "open in another window" criterion is broader than the presence of a pidfile in ~/.claude/sessions/, since one of the reproductions had no pidfile but was visible in a Desktop window.

Issue 2: No body-text search for Code chats

The chat search dialog appears to index Code chats by title only. Body-text queries return only Claude.ai cloud chats containing the term, never Code chats containing it.

Reproduction

  1. Have a Code chat with the phrase Hi <name> in the body (title does not contain <name>)
  2. Search <name> from any window
  3. Result: only Claude.ai cloud chats with <name> are returned. The Code chat with <name> in body is not returned, even when not held open in another window.

Suggestion

Either add full-text body indexing for local Code chats, or document the title-only scope explicitly in the search UI / docs.

Workaround

Close the Desktop window holding the target chat, then search again — or fully restart Claude Desktop so all ~/.claude/sessions/*.json pidfiles clear.

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