[BUG] VSCode sidebar "Past conversations" empty - extension filters out its own sessions via includeProgrammaticSessions=false (regression in 2.1.191)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

The "Past conversations" sidebar panel in the VSCode extension is empty - it shows no previous sessions despite having 87 session transcript .jsonl files on disk under ~/.claude/projects/.

Root cause: In v2.1.191, the VSCode extension host class (Ks) sets includeProgrammaticSessions = false, which filters out sessions with entrypoints in the set ["sdk-cli", "sdk-ts", "sdk-py"]. However, all sessions created from the VSCode extension itself are tagged with "entrypoint": "sdk-cli" in their transcript files. The extension is filtering out its own sessions.

The filtering logic in DAe() checks the head/tail of each .jsonl file for the entrypoint field, and when includeProgrammaticSessions is false, any session matching those entrypoints is excluded from the listing. Since the VSCode extension spawns Claude via the SDK (entrypoint: "sdk-cli"), every session it creates gets hidden.

Relevant code path in extension.js:

• Ks (VSCode host class) overrides includeProgrammaticSessions = !1
• listSessions() passes includeProgrammatic: this.includeProgrammaticSessions to the session listing function
• KY() calls if (!t && DAe(r.head, r.tail)) return null - filtering out sdk-cli sessions
• NAe = new Set(["sdk-cli", "sdk-ts", "sdk-py"]) defines what counts as "programmatic"

What Should Happen?

Sessions created from the VSCode extension should appear in the "Past conversations" sidebar. The programmatic session filter should not apply to sessions that were created by the extension itself, or includeProgrammaticSessions should be true in the VSCode host class.

Error Messages/Logs

No error messages - the panel renders successfully but shows zero sessions.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude Code VSCode extension v2.1.191 or later (tested on v2.1.193)
2. Open a workspace and have one or more conversations via the sidebar
3. Close the conversation and look at the "Past conversations" panel
4. The panel is empty despite session .jsonl files existing on disk

To verify:

• Check ~/.claude/projects/<project-dir>/ - .jsonl files are present
• Inspect the first user message in any .jsonl file - it contains "entrypoint":"sdk-cli"
• In extension.js, the Ks class sets includeProgrammaticSessions=!1, which filters these out

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

2.1.190 - this version does not have the includeProgrammatic filtering concept at all. The filter was introduced in 2.1.191.

Claude Code Version

Extension: 2.1.193 CLI (via declawd): 2.1.157

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

The includeProgrammaticSessions property exists in two classes:

• UU (base class): sets it to true (correct for non-IDE contexts)
• Ks (VSCode extension host, extends UU): overrides it to false

The intent appears to be hiding sessions created by external SDK consumers (scripts using Claude programmatically). But the VSCode extension itself uses the SDK transport and tags sessions as sdk-cli, so they get caught by the same filter.

Version comparison:

• v2.1.190: 0 occurrences of includeProgrammatic in extension.js
• v2.1.191: 5 occurrences, with Ks class setting it to false
• v2.1.193: same behavior as 2.1.191

Possible fixes:

• Set includeProgrammaticSessions = true in Ks (simplest)
• Tag VSCode-originated sessions with a distinct entrypoint (e.g. "claude-vscode") and only filter sdk-cli when used outside IDE context
• Add a user-facing setting to control whether programmatic sessions are shown