[FEATURE] Show session IDs in --resume interactive picker
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)
Problem Statement
There was an older ticket for this issue that appears to have been auto-closed incorrectly. Re-creating this ticket in the hopes that this feature request gets picked up. Copied from the original ticket:
When using claude --resume to interactively select a previous session, the picker only shows session summaries. This makes it difficult to:
- Track and navigate between branched/forked conversations
- Identify which session branch you're resuming
- Distinguish between multiple sessions with similar summaries
- Keep mental context when working with multiple conversation branches on the same topic
When you fork a conversation or resume with automatic branching, the new session gets a different ID, but there's no way to see this in the picker, making it hard to manage branched conversation trees.
Proposed Solution
Update the --resume interactive picker to display session/agent IDs alongside summaries:
\\\\
? Select a conversation to resume:
[83b42dcf-5b20] OpenPhone SMS Data Extraction Component Fixed
[agent-945203d6] Claude Code CLI Overview (agent session)
[64e66d06-d282] Database migration implementation
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Key improvements:
- Show shortened session ID (first 12 characters of UUID)
- Prefix agent sessions with "agent-" and their short ID
- Include "(agent session)" indicator for clarity
- Keep session summaries as the primary description
Alternative Solutions
- Add a
--list-sessionsflag that outputs all session IDs with summaries - Include session ID in the status bar during resumed sessions
- Add a
/session-infocommand to show current session metadata - Show a tree view of branched conversations
Priority
Medium - Would be very helpful
Feature Category
CLI commands and flags
Use Case Example
- I'm working on a feature and create multiple conversation branches to explore different approaches
- Each time I resume with
--resume, Claude Code creates a new session ID (automatic branching) - Later, I want to go back to a specific branch to continue that exploration path
- Currently, I can only see summaries which might be identical or very similar across branches
- With session IDs visible, I could identify exactly which conversation branch I want to resume
- This helps me manage my exploration workflow when trying multiple approaches to the same problem
Additional Context
- Session files are stored as: \
~/.claude/projects/<encoded-dir>/<uuid>.jsonl\ - Agent sessions use format: \
agent-<short-id>.jsonl\ - The session ID is already available (it's the filename) - just needs to be displayed in the UI
- When resuming, Claude Code automatically creates new session IDs to preserve conversation history
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