[BUG] New sessions in a brand-new (non-git) project folder never appear in the sidebar, only findable via search

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?

When I start a new conversation in a brand-new project folder, the resulting session never appears in the left sidebar tree - not under a project group, not under "Ungrouped" - even though the session is active and not archived. It is only reachable through full-text search (Ctrl+K).

Client: Claude Code Desktop app. OS: Windows 11 Home Single Language (10.0.26200).

Reproduced identically in two separate brand-new folders in the same app instance (both had never been git repositories at session-creation time). Ran git init in one of the affected folders as a test (thinking sidebar indexing might depend on git-repo detection), then restarted the app - the session still did not appear in the sidebar afterward, so that is not the (full) cause.

This looks related to an existing cluster of sidebar/session-visibility bugs on the Windows desktop app (#38691, #50292, #33363, #73912), but those are about previously-visible sessions disappearing or ALL sessions being hidden app-wide. This report is narrower: specific new sessions never show up in the sidebar at all from creation, while other projects' sessions in the same sidebar display normally.

What Should Happen?

Any active, non-archived session should appear in the left sidebar (either under its project group or under "Ungrouped") as soon as it's created, without requiring a full-text search to find it.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a brand-new folder that has never been a git repository, e.g. C:\Users\<user>\Claude\Projects\NEWFOLDER.
2. 2. Open Claude Code Desktop and point it at that folder.
3. 3. Start a new conversation/session in that folder and exchange at least one message so a title gets generated.
4. 4. Look at the left sidebar: the new session is not listed under any project group, and not listed under "Ungrouped" either.
5. 5. Press Ctrl+K and search for the session title - it is found immediately, confirming the session exists and is active/not archived.
6. 6. Repeat steps 1-5 in a second brand-new non-git folder - same result.
7. 7. As a test, run git init inside the affected folder and restart the app - the session still does not appear in the sidebar.

Meanwhile, sessions that belong to other, older project folders (already git repos, used before this bug was noticed) continue to display correctly in the sidebar under "Ungrouped" or their project group.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Latest available (auto-updating Desktop app, confirmed by user as up to date). Exact version string not visible in UI; claude --version is not on PATH in this environment to verify directly.

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

The affected projects each have a small number of sessions (2-3), some of which display normally elsewhere in search, so this is not a total data-loss scenario - it's specifically the sidebar tree view failing to list them.