Terminal pane unavailable for a session started in an external terminal and resumed in the desktop app
What happens
Start a Claude Code session in an external terminal in a project directory. Later, resume that same session in the Claude Code desktop app. The resumed session opens with its full transcript, but the terminal pane is not available for it — no terminal button, no attached shell.
A session started directly in the desktop app in the same directory does have the terminal pane. Both sessions have the same working directory and the same transcript format on disk; the only difference is which surface started the session.
Expected
The terminal pane should be available for any session bound to a working directory, regardless of where the session was first started. Moving a session between the terminal and the desktop app is supported and the transcript carries across in both directions — the shell should carry across too.
Why it matters
Continuing a terminal-started session in the desktop app currently means giving up the ability to run commands directly in that session. The alternatives are both bad: resume the session back in an external terminal (leaving the surface the work is happening on), or start a fresh desktop session in the same directory (losing the transcript that was the reason for resuming).
Steps to reproduce
- In an external terminal, in a project directory:
claude - Exchange a few messages, then exit.
- In the Claude Code desktop app, open that same session from the project's session list.
- Observe: the transcript is present; the terminal pane is not offered.
- For contrast, start a new session in the desktop app in the same directory — the terminal pane is offered there.
Environment
- Claude Code CLI: 2.1.246
- Claude desktop app: 1.37937.3
- macOS 26.5.2