[BUG] Desktop: finished Project threads keep live sessions and fill the process cap, so new Project sessions are refused

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

A claude.ai Project cannot start a new session on my Mac. It shows:

Couldn't start in ~/Projects/my-app The maximum number of sessions are already running in your folder. End an existing session in that folder, then try again.

The slots are held by Project threads that finished long ago. Their pull requests are merged, and they do nothing. Three problems together cause this:

1. Finished threads come back after each restart. Each Project thread starts a local Code session over Remote Control (admitted (new, nudge poll) in remote-control.log). After each desktop app restart, the Project resumes every thread it holds (admitted (resume, nudge poll)), finished threads included. Each one gets a live process again and takes a slot.
2. The desktop app never frees those slots. The process cap is max(6, floor(totalmem / 3 GiB)), so it is 8 on a 24 GB Mac. The governor can stop an idle session to make room, but its victim filter skips a session that has Remote Control on. A Project start does not evict at all: admit() returns cli_cap and the start is refused (refused (cli_cap) in remote-control.log).
3. I cannot end them from the Mac side. archive_session refuses each one with "it still has live work (an agent run, a Remote Control client, a queued message or a background task)". The sessions run no task. The only children are MCP servers. Turning Remote Control off is refused too: "Remote Control was started from your phone or claude.ai and stays on for this session."

Result: 5 idle, finished threads plus 3 working sessions fill all 8 slots, and the Project cannot start its next thread.

The refusal message is also wrong. It says "in your folder", but cli_cap is an app-wide cap over every folder.

What Should Happen?

• A thread whose work is finished (for example, its pull request merged, or it has been idle for a long time) does not keep a process that blocks new Project sessions.
• One of these should be true:
• The Project does not resume finished threads after a restart.
• The governor can evict an idle Remote Control session for a Project start, as it does for a user start.
• The Mac side can end a Project thread's session.
• The refusal message names the real limit: the number of live sessions on the device, not in the folder.
• The cap can be set by the user. This Mac runs 8 sessions with memory to spare.

Error Messages/Logs

remote-control.log
11:41:10 admitted (new, nudge poll) session=cse_…: ~/Projects/my-app
11:42:07 refused (cli_cap) session=cse_…: ~/Projects/my-app
11:42:07 refusal delivered (cli_cap) session=cse_…
11:42:24 refused (cli_cap) session=cse_…: ~/Projects/my-app

main.log
[CliGovernor] at cap=8; would evict local_… (idle 1478s) for user spawn
[CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 8 effective

For each of the finished threads, remote-control.log shows admitted (resume, nudge poll) after each app restart.

Steps to Reproduce

1. On a Mac with the desktop app, turn on Remote Control for a folder, and connect a claude.ai Project to it.
2. In the Project, start enough threads to fill the cap (8 on a 24 GB Mac). Let them finish their work.
3. Restart the desktop app. The Project resumes every thread, and each one gets a live process.
4. In the Project, start a new thread. It is refused with the "maximum number of sessions" message.
5. On the Mac, try to archive one of the finished sessions with the session tools. It is refused as "live work".

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Claude Code Version

2.1.281 (Claude Code), desktop app 2.9939.2

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS 27.0

Additional Information

24 GB RAM. The refusal says the sidebar can still archive these sessions. Ending the thread in the Project is the other way I know to free the slot.

2026-09-25  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 1 effective
2026-09-26  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 20 effective
2026-09-27  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 49 effective
2026-09-28  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 53 effective
2026-09-29  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 58 effective
2026-09-30  [CliGovernor] memory pressure (warning): evicted 0 of 0 idle session(s), 62 effective