[FEATURE] Let the desktop app surface on-disk transcripts (cross-machine session continuity)

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
• [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Summary:
The Claude Code CLI resumes conversations by scanning ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/*.jsonl. The desktop app does not — it discovers conversations through a per-installation Electron IndexedDB store in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/. As a result, transcripts that are present, valid, and readable on disk are invisible to the desktop app, and there is no supported way to continue a conversation on a second machine using the app.

Request: allow the desktop app to discover conversations from ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/ — either by scanning, or by offering an explicit "import/rescan" action — so that two machines pointed at the same project path can resume the same conversations.

Observed behavior:
The desktop app on the Air lists only its own 4 conversations. The 4 copied ones never appear — not after a full quit and relaunch, and not via scrolling or search.

The CLI on the same machine, in the same directory, lists all 8.

What was verified:
On the Air, after the copy:

All 8 top-level .jsonl files present, owned by jasonshank, mode 600, all readable=yes
Every line of all 27 files (including nested <session-uuid>/subagents/*.jsonl) parses as valid JSON
All transcripts report cwd: /Volumes/Media/Claude, userType: external, gitBranch: HEAD
Record types structurally equivalent between copied and native transcripts (queue-operation, user, assistant, system, last-prompt, attachment, mode, ai-title/custom-title)
~/.claude.json → projects["/Volumes/Media/Claude"] contains no conversation or history list — only allowedTools, mcpContextUris, enabledMcpjsonServers, disabledMcpjsonServers, hasTrustDialogAccepted, projectOnboardingSeenCount, hasClaudeMdExternalIncludesApproved, hasClaudeMdExternalIncludesWarningShown
No conversation index anywhere in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude apart from IndexedDB/https_claude.ai_0.indexeddb.leveldb
A title-record theory was tested and rejected: two of the non-appearing transcripts do contain ai-title records.

So the data is sound. The gap is purely in how the app discovers conversations.

Documented behavior:
This is consistent with the docs, which state:

"The desktop app, Claude Code on the web, and the VS Code extension each maintain their own session history." — https://code.claude.com/docs/en/sessions.md

The behavior is therefore working as designed. This is a feature request, not a bug report. The request is that the design change.

Proposed Solution

Suggested resolution, roughly in order of preference:
Scan ~/.claude/projects/<project-key>/ and merge results into the app's conversation list, deduplicating against IndexedDB by session ID.
An explicit "Import / Rescan conversations" action for a project — lower risk, keeps discovery opt-in.
Documentation. If transcript portability will remain unsupported, say so explicitly in the desktop app docs. The current wording describes separate histories but doesn't state that on-disk transcripts are undiscoverable by the app — which is what led to a full evening of filesystem debugging on correct, valid data.
Item 3 is worth doing regardless of whether 1 or 2 ever happens.

Current workaround:
Claude Code CLI on both machines, both working from the shared path, with the state directory replicated between them. This works — claude --resume shows all 8 conversations on either machine — but it means not using the desktop app for this workflow.

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

Other

Use Case Example

Why this matters:
The use case is ordinary: one person, multiple machines in one house, wanting to continue a piece of work after moving from a desk to a couch. Today that requires either abandoning the desktop app for the CLI, or using Claude Code on the web.

Claude Code on the web is the documented cross-machine answer, but it runs in Anthropic's cloud and cannot reach local resources — in this case an SMB-mounted NAS, a Proxmox host reachable only over LAN SSH, and a local WordPress dev environment. For local-infrastructure work it isn't a substitute.

That leaves the CLI as the only option, which means giving up the desktop app for the exact workflow it's otherwise well suited to.

Additional Context

<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-size: 17px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(225, 224, 217); margin-block: 24px 8px; padding-block: 0px; font-family: &quot;Anthropic Sans&quot;, system-ui, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(32, 32, 31); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Environment</h2><div class="overflow-x-auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); overflow-x: auto; color: rgb(225, 224, 217); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Sans&quot;, system-ui, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(32, 32, 31); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
OS | macOS (Darwin 25.5.0), Apple Silicon
-- | --
Desktop app | 1.24012.9
CLI | 2.1.220 (installed via npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code)
Transcript version fields | 2.1.219 / 2.1.220
Machines | Mac Mini (user jshan), MacBook Air (user jasonshank)

</div><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-size: 17px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 22px; color: rgb(225, 224, 217); margin-block: 24px 8px; padding-block: 0px; font-family: &quot;Anthropic Sans&quot;, system-ui, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(32, 32, 31); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Setup</h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Sans&quot;, system-ui, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(32, 32, 31); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Both machines open the<span> </span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-weight: 500; font-variation-settings: &quot;opsz&quot; 16, &quot;wght&quot; 560;">same</strong><span> </span>working directory:<span> </span><code node="[object Object]" data-epitaxy-inline-code="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Mono&quot;, ui-monospace, monospace; font-feature-settings: &quot;calt&quot; 0, &quot;liga&quot; 0; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: none; background: none 0% 0% / auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); border-radius: 4px; padding-block: 1px; padding-inline: 2px; line-height: 1.4;">/Volumes/Media/Claude</code>, an SMB mount of a NAS share, mounted at that identical path on both. The path deliberately contains no username, because Claude Code derives the state-folder key from the absolute working-directory path — so both machines produce the same key,<span> </span><code node="[object Object]" data-epitaxy-inline-code="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Mono&quot;, ui-monospace, monospace; font-feature-settings: &quot;calt&quot; 0, &quot;liga&quot; 0; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: none; background: none 0% 0% / auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); border-radius: 4px; padding-block: 1px; padding-inline: 2px; line-height: 1.4;">-Volumes-Media-Claude</code>.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Sans&quot;, system-ui, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(32, 32, 31); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">Four conversation transcripts originating on the Mini were copied into the Air's<span> </span><code node="[object Object]" data-epitaxy-inline-code="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Mono&quot;, ui-monospace, monospace; font-feature-settings: &quot;calt&quot; 0, &quot;liga&quot; 0; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: none; background: none 0% 0% / auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); border-radius: 4px; padding-block: 1px; padding-inline: 2px; line-height: 1.4;">~/.claude/projects/-Volumes-Media-Claude/</code>, alongside the Air's own four. The<span> </span><code node="[object Object]" data-epitaxy-inline-code="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid color(srgb 1 1 1 / 0.1); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline-color: rgb(85, 152, 231); scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(225, 224, 217, 0.35) rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-family: &quot;Anthropic Mono&quot;, ui-monospace, monospace; font-feature-settings: &quot;calt&quot; 0, &quot;liga&quot; 0; font-variation-settings: normal; font-size: 12px; font-variant-ligatures: none; background: none 0% 0% / auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.08); color: rgb(225, 224, 217); border-radius: 4px; padding-block: 1px; padding-inline: 2px; line-height: 1.4;">"cwd"</code><span> </span>field inside the copied transcripts was rewritten to match the shared path.</p>