[FEATURE] Claude Desktop (macOS): allow removing entries from the Recent projects list — `claude project purge` does not clear them

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

Claude Desktop on macOS shows a Recent projects list in the folder picker at the bottom of the chat window. Entries accumulate indefinitely and there is currently no supported way to remove them — neither from the UI nor from the CLI.

Over time the list fills up with folders that are no longer relevant: deleted projects, temporary folders, git worktrees, one-off sessions. When several entries have similar names but point to different paths, picking the right project becomes slow and error-prone.

Notably, running claude project purge completes without error, but the Recent list in Claude Desktop is completely unchanged after quitting and reopening the app. So the one command that sounds like it should help does not affect this list.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open several folders as projects in Claude Desktop on macOS.
2. Delete or stop using some of them.
3. Open the folder picker — the stale entries are still listed under "Recent".
4. Run claude project purge in a terminal.
5. Quit and reopen Claude Desktop — the Recent list is identical.

Expected: stale entries can be removed individually, or cleared in bulk.
Actual: entries persist forever with no way to remove them.

Proposed Solution

1. Right-click → "Remove from Recent" on any entry in the folder picker. This should only remove the list entry — it must never delete the folder or its contents from disk.
2. "Clear All Recent" — a small action at the top of the Recent section to reset the whole list at once.
3. Make claude project purge (or an equivalent documented command) actually clear the desktop app's Recent list. Today the command appears to be a no-op for this list, which is confusing because the name implies otherwise.
4. Nice to have: pin frequently used folders so they stay at the top regardless of recency.

Auto-hiding entries whose path no longer exists on disk would also help, but explicit user control is the important part — many stale entries are folders that still exist and are simply no longer in use.

Alternative Solutions

• claude project purge — runs successfully but does not change the Recent list in Claude Desktop, even after restarting the app.
• Editing the underlying storage by hand — not possible, since it is not documented where this list is persisted.
• Removing entries from the UI — no context menu, no delete affordance, no settings option.

There is currently no known workaround at all. At minimum, documenting where the list is stored would give users a manual escape hatch.

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

Configuration and settings

Use Case Example

I work across many repositories and frequently create throwaway git worktrees and test folders. After a few weeks:

1. I click the folder picker to switch to the project I actually want.
2. The Recent list shows a long list of entries, many of them deleted worktrees and one-off test folders.
3. Several entries share the same basename (e.g. three different my-app folders at different paths), so I have to hover each one to check the full path.
4. I pick the wrong one, start a session in a stale folder, and have to back out and try again.
5. I try claude project purge to clean things up — it reports success, but nothing changes.

With a "Remove from Recent" action, this is a five-second cleanup instead of a recurring papercut.

Additional Context

This is a standard UX pattern: every file manager, IDE and browser lets users remove items from a recent/history list.

Previous reports of the same underlying problem were each closed as duplicates of one another without a fix landing, so the request is still unresolved:

• #35187 (closed as duplicate)
• #33502
• #19474

This report adds two details not covered in those: it is reproducible on macOS specifically, and claude project purge does not clear the Claude Desktop Recent list.