Sessions started inside a git submodule are not listed by --resume

Type

Bug

Summary

A Claude Code session started inside a git submodule working directory is saved correctly, but does not appear in the --resume / -r picker when launched again from that same directory. The transcripts exist on disk and are recoverable by session ID, but they are invisible in the interactive list — so from the user's point of view the sessions are "lost."

Reproduction

1. Have a superproject containing a git submodule, e.g. ~/rrwebcloud with submodule at ~/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb.

• The submodule's .git is a file (gitdir: ../../.git/modules/rrweb), not a directory.

1. cd ~/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb and start a Claude session; do some work.
2. From the same directory, run claude -r (or claude --resume).
3. The session(s) just created are not listed.

What I verified on disk

• The directory is a submodule:
• cat ~/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb/.git -> gitdir: ../../.git/modules/rrweb
• Transcripts are stored under the expected, cwd-derived project dir:
• ~/.claude/projects/-home-eoghan-rrwebcloud-vendor-rrweb/ contains 12 .jsonl sessions (recent, up to 2 MB each).
• The recorded cwd in those sessions is exactly /home/eoghan/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb, which matches the project-dir name. So storage is correct and consistent.
• Despite that, the resume picker shows none of them.

Likely cause (hypothesis)

For a submodule, git resolves the git directory outside the working tree:

$ cd ~/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb
$ git rev-parse --show-toplevel        -> /home/eoghan/rrwebcloud/vendor/rrweb
$ git rev-parse --git-dir              -> /home/eoghan/rrwebcloud/.git/modules/rrweb
$ git rev-parse --git-common-dir       -> /home/eoghan/rrwebcloud/.git/modules/rrweb
$ git rev-parse --show-superproject-working-tree -> /home/eoghan/rrwebcloud

Sessions are written to a project dir derived from cwd (vendor/rrweb), but the resume picker appears to compute the project key differently — likely from the git-dir/common-dir or by walking up to a .git directory (which skips the submodule's .git pointer file and lands on the superproject ~/rrwebcloud). Either way the picker's lookup key no longer matches the storage key, so the submodule's sessions are filtered out.

(Note: this is the same class of "storage key vs picker key mismatch" as worktree sessions not showing in -r, but the trigger here is submodules, not worktrees.)

Expected behavior

Sessions started in a submodule working directory should be listed by --resume when launched from that same directory, consistent with where they are stored (the cwd-derived project dir).

Workaround

Resume by explicit session ID: claude --resume <session-id> still works; only the interactive listing is broken.

Environment

• Claude Code v2.1.x
• Linux
• Submodule working tree with .git pointer file -> .git/modules/<name>