[BUG] /desktop "cannot determine working directory" after EnterWorktree→ExitWorktree — session transcript fragmented across two project slugs; /desktop resolves to a bridge-session record with no cwd

Refile of #64191, which was auto-closed as a duplicate of #41688 / #41723 / #48809. It is not a duplicate of those — see "Why this is not a duplicate" below. Reopen was not possible (the issue was closed by automation, not by me), so this refiles the specific, uncovered root cause with sharper framing.

Summary

When a CLI session changes its working directory via EnterWorktree → ExitWorktree and then runs /desktop, the handoff fails with:

Cannot determine working directory for CLI session <session-id> — the transcript may be incomplete

The session has a full transcript. The real problem is that one session id's transcript is fragmented across two ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/ directories, and /desktop resolves the id to a 1-line bridge-session record under the parent slug that has no cwd field at all — never consulting the worktree-slug fragment where the real conversation (and valid cwd values) live.

Why this is not a duplicate

• #41688 (CLOSED/COMPLETED, fix shipped ~2026-04) — triggered by worktree deletion leaving the shell cwd stuck on a deleted path. This bug involves no deletion, and it reproduces on CLI 2.1.158 / Desktop 1.9659.2 (2026-05-28) — after that fix shipped.
• #41723 (CLOSED/DUPLICATE → #41634) and #48809 (CLOSED/NOT_PLANNED) — both describe the generic "importCliSession reads only the first line / first record has no cwd" parse bug, i.e. one file whose leading record lacks cwd.

The failure here is a level above "first line has no cwd": /desktop resolves the session id to the wrong file entirely — a bridge-session stub under a different project slug — because the Enter/Exit-worktree lifecycle scatters one session id across multiple slugs. Fixing the first-line parse alone would not fix this, because the file /desktop reads has no conversation in it at all.

What's on disk

For a single session id <SID> there are two transcript files:

1. ~/.claude/projects/<parent-slug>/<SID>.jsonl — 1 line, no cwd:

``json
{"type":"bridge-session","sessionId":"<SID>","bridgeSessionId":"cse_…","lastSequenceNum":0}
``

1. ~/.claude/projects/<worktree-slug>/<SID>.jsonl — the real conversation (~1.2k lines). Valid cwd values are present (both the worktree path and the parent path), though the first line is {"type":"last-prompt","cwd":null,…}.

/desktop runs after ExitWorktree (session cwd back at the parent), writes the bridge-session record under the parent slug, and Desktop resolves <SID> to that parent-slug fragment — which carries no cwd — and errors.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a CLI session in a git repo.
2. EnterWorktree (create/enter a worktree).
3. Do some work.
4. ExitWorktree with keep.
5. /desktop.

→ Desktop errors: Cannot determine working directory … the transcript may be incomplete.

Root cause

• A session that changes cwd via Enter/Exit worktree writes transcript entries under different projects/<slug>/ dirs (the slug is derived from cwd).
• The /desktop bridge record is written under the current (post-exit) cwd's slug, which need not be the slug holding the conversation — and the bridge record itself carries no cwd.
• Desktop's cwd resolution sees a fragment with no usable cwd and gives up.

Suggested fix direction

• When resolving a CLI session's cwd, consult all projects/*/<SID>.jsonl fragments for that session id, not just the one under the current slug.
• Scan for the last non-null cwd (the first line can legitimately be cwd:null) rather than failing on the first/only record.
• Fallback: derive cwd from the projects/<slug> directory name, which already encodes the path.

Related

• #64191 — the prior report this refiles (auto-closed as duplicate).
• #62017 — /desktop on an empty first-command session → CLI session transcript not found; same theme (resolves to a transcript that yields no cwd).
• #65554 / #65808 — the same /desktop ⇄ worktree cluster (runtime cwd dropped on transfer; UI branch indicator stale).

Environment

• Claude Code CLI 2.1.158 (also reproduced on later 2.1.x)
• Desktop Claude 1.9659.2 (390d6c) — 2026-05-28
• macOS (Darwin 24.6.0), Apple Silicon
• Repo uses git separate-git-dir; worktrees under <repo>/.claude/worktrees/<name>