[BUG] Desktop 1.22209.3 auto-update flattened all Code sidebar groups into one list (data intact; grouping is live-derived from git-root)

What's Wrong?

After the Claude Desktop app auto-updated to 1.22209.3 on 2026-07-19 (~02:16 local time), all session groups in the Code tab sidebar disappeared. Sessions that were previously organized into per-project groups are now dumped into a single flat "Recents" list. It worked correctly the day before on the prior version — this is a clean regression triggered by the update.

Full quit (Cmd+Q) + relaunch does not restore the groups.

Environment

• Desktop App: 1.22209.3 (installed 2026-07-19 02:16 via Squirrel auto-update)
• Claude Code CLI: 2.1.215
• OS: macOS 26.3 (Darwin 25.3.0), Apple Silicon
• Regression: Yes — grouping worked ~24h earlier on the previous version.

Root-cause analysis

The session data is 100% intact — this is purely a rendering/logic regression, not data loss. Details from digging into the local app data:

• The session wrapper index files at

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<userId>/<profileId>/local_*.json
are all present and healthy: 700 wrappers across 38 distinct cwd/originCwd values, each with correct cwd, originCwd, title, and timestamps. No orphaned .tmp files.

• There is no persisted group store: grepping Local Storage, Session Storage, and the https_claude.ai_0 IndexedDB returns zero session cwd paths. The sidebar grouping is therefore derived live in the renderer, not read from a cache.
• Strings in Claude.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar confirm the grouping is computed from originCwd via findGitRoot() — e.g. const n = await S.findGitRoot(o); if (!n) return { kind: "not_git" }. Sessions that don't resolve to a git root fall into the ungrouped flat bucket.
• In this case the sidebar collapsed to a single flat list including sessions whose cwd IS a git repository, so the regression is not limited to non-git directories — grouping appears broken across the board.

What Should Happen

• Sidebar groups should be re-derived from each session's cwd/originCwd (folder-based grouping, as before) and should survive app updates.
• Because group membership is not persisted and the wrapper files already contain everything needed (cwd, originCwd, title), a rendering regression like this should never be able to hide the groups — they should rebuild from the wrappers on launch.

Impact

No data loss — every session is still reachable via the sidebar search box and via claude --resume in the CLI. But multi-project navigation is broken: dozens of projects are flattened into one undifferentiated list.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have multiple Code sessions across several project folders (mix of git and non-git), organized into sidebar groups.
2. Let the Desktop app auto-update to 1.22209.3.
3. Reopen the Code tab — all groups are gone, sessions flattened into one list.
4. Full quit (Cmd+Q) + relaunch does not restore them.

Related

• #51722 (open) — "Sidebar session grouping uses git root instead of session subdirectory"; confirmed regression across 2.1.92 → 2.1.119. Same root cause (git-root-based grouping).
• #58193, #57990, #51412 — related sidebar / session-index regressions after updates.

Is this a regression?

Yes — this worked in the previous version, one day earlier.