[FEATURE] Two-level organization: folders for Projects, and grouping for conversations inside a Project

Summary

Claude offers no organizational level above a Project, and none below it either. The Projects list and the conversation list inside a Project are both flat, unbounded, and ordered only by recency. For anyone using Claude daily across several distinct areas of work, both lists become unmanageable within a few months. We need structure at both levels.

Problem

Level 1 — Projects. I run parallel workstreams in a genomics core facility: sequencing analyses, pipeline development, teaching material, quotes/admin, internal tooling. Each genuinely warrants its own Project, because each needs its own instructions and its own knowledge base. The result is a long flat list in which unrelated projects sit side by side. The sidebar and the project picker become heavy, slow to scan, and finding the right project means reading every name in the list.

Level 2 — Conversations inside a Project. The chat list grows without bound. Dozens of threads with auto-generated titles, no grouping, no way to mark which thread is the live one. Archiving removes a thread from view; that is deletion-by-another-name, not filing.

The two problems compound. I cannot split a project into smaller projects to reduce chat clutter, because that fragments the shared knowledge base and instructions — and it makes the Projects list even longer.

Proposed solution

A. Folders for Projects (the missing upper level)

• Create folders/groups, drag Projects into them, collapse and expand them in the sidebar
• One level of nesting is already enough; two would be generous
• Purely organizational for v1 — no inherited instructions or shared knowledge base required
• Folder-scoped search and filtering

B. Folders or tags for conversations inside a Project

• User-created sections within a Project ("Planning", "Runs", "Drafts", "Done")
• Or a lighter-weight equivalent: pin threads to the top, plus labels/tags with filter-by-tag
• Instructions and knowledge base stay project-wide; the grouping only affects the chat list

Why the current workarounds fail

• Naming prefixes (SEQ · …, ADMIN · …) — the only workaround available today. Fragile, entirely manual, breaks whenever a project is renamed, and does nothing to reduce visual load.
• Splitting into more Projects — makes level 1 worse and destroys the shared context that made a Project worth creating.
• Browser extensions — desktop browser only; they do not work in the desktop app or on mobile.
• Archiving — removal, not organization.

Acceptance criteria

• [ ] I can create a folder and move existing Projects into it without losing history or settings
• [ ] A collapsed folder reduces the sidebar to the number of folders, not the number of projects
• [ ] Inside a Project I can group, tag, or pin conversations and filter the list by that grouping
• [ ] Organization syncs across web, desktop app, and mobile
• [ ] Search can be scoped to a folder, a project, or a tag

Notes on scope

Related: #68262 requested subfolders within a Project and was closed as not related to Claude Code. This request covers both levels together, because in practice they are one hierarchy problem. Filing here as the closest public tracker — happy to move it if there is a better venue for Claude app / Cowork UI feedback.