[BUG] Cowork: session header shows cloud project while "Change project" menu shows local project of the same name; assignment is cosmetic

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?

After the July web/mobile Cowork rollout, local (desktop) projects and cloud projects coexist under the same names, and different parts of the UI disagree about which project a Cowork session belongs to:

• The session header/breadcrumb shows the session under a project with a cloud icon (e.g. ☁ Trabajo Remoto / <session name>).
• Right-clicking the same session in the sidebar → "Change project" shows the local project of the same name as the selected one (checkmark), while other local projects display a monitor icon.

So the header says "cloud project" and the context menu says "local project" for the same session at the same time.

Actual behavior:

• Header shows the session under a cloud project named "Trabajo Remoto".
• Right-click menu shows the local project "Trabajo Remoto" as selected.
• The assignment appears to be cosmetic: asked to enumerate its context, the remote session reports no project name, no project files, no project memory/instructions, and no sibling sessions ("I have no access to that" on all four checks). Files placed in the local project's folder on disk (D:\OneDrive\Documentos\Claude\Projects\Trabajo Remoto) never reach the remote session sandbox.
• Related confusion: some local projects appear to have been partially cloned to the cloud (visible from the Android project picker), but the clones are incomplete/outdated — they are missing some conversations that the local versions contain. Not all local projects were cloned.

Environment:

• Claude Desktop on Windows (latest as of 2026-07-19)
• Claude app on Android (latest, Cowork beta enabled)
• Remote (cloud) Cowork sessions enabled on the account
• Plan: Max

Impact: Users migrating from local to cloud projects cannot trust project labels: two different registries (desktop-local metadata vs account-level cloud projects) hold same-named projects, each UI surface reads a different registry, and session-to-project assignment across the local/cloud boundary silently does nothing (no context/files/memory are inherited).

What Should Happen?

Both surfaces report the same project membership, or the UI clearly distinguishes the local project from its cloud counterpart (they currently share the same display name).

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. On an account with remote Cowork sessions enabled, have a pre-existing local desktop project (created before the July update), e.g. "Trabajo Remoto".
2. Create a new Cowork task from the Android app (it is created as a remote/cloud session and appears on desktop immediately).
3. On desktop, right-click the new session in the sidebar → "Add to project" → select the local project.
4. Compare the session header/breadcrumb vs the right-click "Change project" menu.

Note: This is about the Claude Desktop / Cowork UI, not the claude CLI. Screenshots of the header (cloud icon) and the "Change project" menu (local project selected, monitor icons) are available and can be attached on request.

Related: #77337 ("[BUG] Move an existing task in cowork to a project") — on some platforms the "Add to project" option for Cowork tasks doesn't exist at all, which suggests this area is mid-rollout.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

N/A — Claude Desktop app (Cowork) on Windows, latest as of 2026-07-19; not the CLI

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

This is a Claude Desktop / Cowork app defect, not a Claude Code CLI bug — filing here since Cowork desktop bugs are tracked in this repo. CLI-specific fields above (version, terminal, platform) are N/A.

Related issues (same post-unification cluster, but different defects):

• #77337 — "Add to project" option missing entirely for Cowork tasks on some platforms.
• #79829 — a project's Recents lists sessions belonging to other projects and mounts the wrong working folder. That issue is about wrong session→project mapping when opening sessions; this one is about the header and the "Change project" menu disagreeing (cloud vs local registry) and the cross-boundary assignment being cosmetic (no context/files/memory inherited).

Screenshots of the header (cloud icon) and the "Change project" menu (local project selected, monitor icons) are available and can be attached on request.