Sidebar session list shows only archived sessions; all active sessions (including the current one) are hidden

Summary

In the desktop app, the left sidebar's session list renders only sessions with isArchived: true. Every active (non-archived) session is hidden, including the session that is currently running and focused.

The practical effect: clicking out of a thread makes it unreachable from the UI. There is no way to keep several threads open and switch between them, because no active thread is ever listed.

Environment

• Claude Code desktop app, version 2.1.229
• macOS (Darwin 25.5.0), Apple Silicon
• Session store: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<org-id>/<user-id>/local_*.json

Evidence

Tallying isArchived across all 76 session records in the local store:

| isArchived | Count | Rendered in sidebar |
|---|---|---|
| true | 16 | Yes |
| false | 60 | No |

The 16 archived sessions are all several months old (Feb–Mar). They are exactly what the sidebar displays. The 60 active sessions — everything from the last several weeks, including today's — are absent.

Active sessions, newest first, none of which appear in the sidebar:

Aug 15 15:05  UI starter                        (currently running + focused)
Aug 15 14:54  Missing thread
Aug 15 14:18  Skill generator transcripts
Aug 14 09:30  Time logging tool for maintenance technicians
Aug 13 23:42  Fleet changes
Aug 12 16:35  SCL memory

Archived sessions, which do appear:

Mar 08 17:30  Fix overtime hours calculation on dashboard
Mar 03 17:37  Optimize API calls with daily data caching
Feb 28 00:22  Fix GitHub integration issues

Field-level comparison of one hidden and one visible record — the only meaningful difference is the flag:

// hidden (recent, active)
{ "sessionId": "local_a5d8…", "title": "Missing thread",
  "cwd": "~/Developer/…/Dashboard UI",
  "isArchived": false, "lastActivityAt": 1786820059229 }

// visible (old, archived)
{ "sessionId": "local_3393…", "title": "Configure Claude to use local LM Studio server",
  "cwd": "~/Documents/Projects/local server test",
  "isArchived": true, "transcriptUnavailable": true }

Knock-on effect on folder grouping

The sidebar's folder groups are derived from the displayed sessions' cwd. Because only archived sessions are displayed, only folders that happen to contain an archived session get a group. Folders whose sessions are all active get no group at all — so the folder of the currently running session is missing from the sidebar entirely, while the window header displays that same folder's name.

Reproduce

1. Have both archived and active sessions in the local store.
2. Open the desktop app and look at the sidebar session list.
3. Observe that only archived sessions are listed; active sessions, including the focused one, are absent.

Expected

The sidebar should list active sessions, most recently active first, grouped by folder. Archived sessions should be hidden by default or shown behind an explicit "archived" filter — the current behavior appears to be exactly inverted.

Notes

• Session transcripts themselves are intact on disk in ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/*.jsonl; claude --resume <cli-session-id> from a terminal reaches them normally. The data is fine — this is a display/filter issue.
• Worth flagging for whoever picks this up: archived records in this store carry transcriptUnavailable: true, so "just mark them archived to make them visible" is not a safe user-side workaround.