[BUG] Desktop app: sessions inside a sidebar group show no timestamps and are not sorted by recency

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?

Environment

• Claude desktop app 1.24012.9 (Code tab), bundled Claude Code 2.1.219
• macOS 26.5.2 (arm64)

What happens

Once I organize sessions into custom groups in the Code tab sidebar, I can no
longer tell which conversation I touched most recently:

1. Sidebar rows show only a bullet and a title — no timestamp, no relative time.
2. Order inside a group follows neither last activity nor creation time. It

appears to be the manual order in which sessions were added to the group,
and it never updates afterwards.

To resume the right conversation I have to open sessions one by one and guess.
With ~37 active sessions across 6+ groups this makes grouping counterproductive:
it folds the list up while destroying the global recency ordering I relied on.

Evidence

One group, three sessions (titles redacted, times read from session metadata):

| Sidebar position | Session | Last activity | Created |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Session A | Aug 1 | Jul 30 |
| 2 | Session B | Jul 27 | Jul 24 |
| 3 | Session C | Jul 28 | Jul 27 |

Sorting by last activity or by creation time would swap positions 2 and 3.
Neither matches what is rendered.

Another group is worse: its oldest session (last activity Jul 15, created
Jul 13) sits in position 3, above sessions last active Jul 24, Jul 23 and Jul 20.

The underlying data is complete — every session carries lastActivityAt and
createdAt, and the session listing API returns them sorted by most recent
activity. The information exists; the sidebar just doesn't use it.

Expected

Any one of these would fix it for me:

• Sort sessions inside a group by last activity (descending) by default, or

offer a per-group sort toggle (recent / created / manual).

• Render a relative timestamp on each row ("2h ago", "yesterday").
• Let me create a new session directly inside a group, placed at the top.

Prior art

Codex lets me create a new topic directly inside a group, and the new topic
lands at the top of that group. Order therefore reflects recency on its own and
I never have to drag sessions around — which is where the disordering comes
from in the first place.

What Should Happen?

Environment

• Claude desktop app 1.24012.9 (Code tab), bundled Claude Code 2.1.219
• macOS 26.5.2 (arm64)

What happens

Once I organize sessions into custom groups in the Code tab sidebar, I can no
longer tell which conversation I touched most recently:

1. Sidebar rows show only a bullet and a title — no timestamp, no relative time.
2. Order inside a group follows neither last activity nor creation time. It

appears to be the manual order in which sessions were added to the group,
and it never updates afterwards.

To resume the right conversation I have to open sessions one by one and guess.
With ~37 active sessions across 6+ groups this makes grouping counterproductive:
it folds the list up while destroying the global recency ordering I relied on.

Evidence

One group, three sessions (titles redacted, times read from session metadata):

| Sidebar position | Session | Last activity | Created |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Session A | Aug 1 | Jul 30 |
| 2 | Session B | Jul 27 | Jul 24 |
| 3 | Session C | Jul 28 | Jul 27 |

Sorting by last activity or by creation time would swap positions 2 and 3.
Neither matches what is rendered.

Another group is worse: its oldest session (last activity Jul 15, created
Jul 13) sits in position 3, above sessions last active Jul 24, Jul 23 and Jul 20.

The underlying data is complete — every session carries lastActivityAt and
createdAt, and the session listing API returns them sorted by most recent
activity. The information exists; the sidebar just doesn't use it.

Expected

Any one of these would fix it for me:

• Sort sessions inside a group by last activity (descending) by default, or

offer a per-group sort toggle (recent / created / manual).

• Render a relative timestamp on each row ("2h ago", "yesterday").
• Let me create a new session directly inside a group, placed at the top.

Prior art

Codex lets me create a new topic directly inside a group, and the new topic
lands at the top of that group. Order therefore reflects recency on its own and
I never have to drag sessions around — which is where the disordering comes
from in the first place.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the desktop app and switch to the Code tab.
2. Create a custom group in the left sidebar.
3. Drag at least three sessions into it, in an order that does not match their

recency — e.g. drag the oldest one in second.

1. Open the session sitting in the last position and send a message, so it

becomes the most recently active session in that group.

1. Look at the sidebar.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code 2.1.219

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_