Desktop: project folder selected before the first message is ignored; session cwd is always the home directory

What's Wrong?

On the Claude Code desktop app, the project folder selected before the first message is not applied to the session. The session's working directory is always the user's home directory.

The folder picker gives no error and the UI appears to accept the selection, so there is no signal that anything went wrong. It only surfaces later, indirectly.

Consequences:

• The project's CLAUDE.md does not load at session start. It only loads incidentally, if a file inside that tree happens to be read mid-conversation.
• Transcripts and memory are filed under the home slug (~/.claude/projects/-Users-<user>/) instead of the project slug, so per-project memory never accumulates.
• Any tooling keyed off cwd attributes the work to the wrong project.

What Should Happen?

The session cwd should be the folder selected in the app before the first message.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Claude Code desktop app on macOS.
2. Start a new conversation and select a project folder (e.g. ~/Projects/MyProject) before sending the first message.
3. Send the first message.
4. Ask Claude to run pwd.

Expected: /Users/<user>/Projects/MyProject
Actual: /Users/<user>

Error Messages/Logs

No error is emitted. Verified two independent ways:

pwd in the session:

/Users/<user>

Session metadata for the 8 most recent sessions — 8 of 8 report the home directory, including sessions whose entire subject matter was a specific project:

"title": "…",  "cwd": "/Users/<user>"
"title": "…",  "cwd": "/Users/<user>"
… (8/8)

Additional data point, offered without a causal claim: in ~/.claude/projects/, the only folder slug with real transcripts other than the home slug is a project under ~/development, whose most recent session is 2026-08-05. Every session after that date is filed under the home slug. I could not determine whether those earlier sessions were started from the app or from a terminal, so this may or may not indicate a regression.

Is this a regression?

Unsure — see the note above.

Claude Code Version

2.1.220 (Claude Code). Noting for triage: 2.1.227 is the latest published version at the time of filing, and I have not been able to confirm whether the behaviour persists there.

Platform

macOS 26.6, Claude Code desktop app