Desktop Sessions Discovery

Claude Desktop Sessions Discovery Toolkit

Claude desktop app (Mac/Windows native) stores sessions per <accountId>/<orgId>/. When you switch accounts, old sessions become invisible in UI — they remain on disk but LocalSessionManager.loadSessions() only reads the active accountId folder.

Related reports: #48511 was opened 2026-04-15 and is closed as not planned; #26452 was opened 2026-02-18 and remains open as checked 2026-09-06. These are version-specific user reports, not proof that the installed build has the same cause or that a fix does not exist.

This skill is a community workaround. Use at your own risk — see Caveats.

Storage paths (reverse-engineered, NOT in official Anthropic docs)

Source: bundled JS .vite/build/index.js line 771: const $6t="claude-code-sessions". May change in any release.

Schema of local_*.json

{
  "sessionId": "uuid",
  "cliSessionId": "uuid",
  "cwd": "C:\\path\\to\\project",
  "originCwd": "...",
  "createdAt": <unix ms timestamp OR ISO string>,
  "lastActivityAt": <unix ms timestamp OR ISO string>,
  "model": "claude-opus-4-7-...",
  "effort": "default",
  "isArchived": false,
  "title": "Human-readable title shown in UI",
  "permissionMode": "default",
  "remoteMcpServersConfig": [],
  "completedTurns": 12
}

NB: timestamp format is inconsistent — some sessions use Unix ms (int), others ISO string. Parser must handle both.

Four operations

1. Registry — interactive HTML browse (recommended starting point)

Script: scripts/sessions_registry.py

python scripts/sessions_registry.py                # generate + auto-open in default browser
python scripts/sessions_registry.py --no-open      # generate only
python scripts/sessions_registry.py --output /custom/path.html

Produces a self-contained HTML registry with:

• Live JS search by title / cwd / sessionId substring
• Sort by recency / turns count / title A-Z / size
• Filter: hide 0-turn auto-runs ("Morning digest", "Observer daily analysis"), hide already-restored
• Per-accountId collapsible sections, active accountId highlighted green
• "Restore" button per session — copies command to clipboard
• "RESTORED" badge for sessions already migrated (read from ~/.claude/desktop-migrations.jsonl)
• Includes BOTH claude-code-sessions/ (current) AND local-agent-mode-sessions/ (legacy pre-Feb 2026)

Use when the user wants to browse the archive visually. When the user has already selected and authorized a specific restore, the agent performs the scoped dry-run, backup/copy and verification itself through available approved tools; do not assign clipboard/terminal work to the user. A generated restore command is an input to inspect, not authorization by itself.

2. Inventory — full picture (text)

Script: scripts/sessions_inventory.py

Scans all <accountId>/<orgId>/local_*.json, prints grouped table with title/cwd/size/lastActivityAt sorted by recency. Includes cross-account view (which projects appear in multiple accountIds — useful when same user worked on the same project under different accounts).

3. Find — search by title/cwd substring (text)

Script: scripts/sessions_find.py

python sessions_find.py "<query>"                  # substring in title or cwd
python sessions_find.py "<query>" --account <prefix>  # filter by accountId
python sessions_find.py --since 2026-04-01         # date filter
python sessions_find.py --untitled                  # parse-failed or empty

Output is top-N matches sorted by recency, with copy-pasteable restore command.

4. Restore — selective single-session migration

Script: scripts/sessions_restore.py

python sessions_restore.py <sid8>             # auto-detect active accountId
python sessions_restore.py <sid8> --to <acct> # explicit target
python sessions_restore.py <sid8> --dry-run   # plan only

Behaviour:

1. Find source session by sessionId substring (8 chars usually unique)
2. Detect active accountId by latest mtime (heuristic)
3. Copy local_<sid>.json into <targetAcct>/<sameOrgId>/
4. Verify byte-for-byte match before declaring success (proof loop)
5. Append to ~/.claude/desktop-migrations.jsonl audit log
6. Source kept as backup, never deleted

After a verified copy, inspect the current app's documented reload/restart requirement and active work before restarting. File parity alone does not prove a session is visible or resumable. The default target-account detection is an mtime heuristic: inspect the signed-in destination and use explicit --to for an authorized restore; never treat newest mtime as account authority.

Caveats and risks

v2.1.9+ regression (issue #18645)

Historical reports described machine-origin validation. Same-machine success or cross-machine failure from those builds does not establish current compatibility. Check the installed version, actual storage and error before using this workaround; do not predict future validation changes.

Reported disk-image layout (issue #54428)

The linked historical report describes a disk-image storage variant. Discover the installed layout first; these scripts only support the enumerated JSON layouts. Do not manipulate disk images or infer an announced roadmap from an issue. An unsupported layout is a measured limit.

Reported MSIX rename failure (issue #48362)

The issue reports EXDEV during atomic rename in a specific MSIX environment. Check current package version, path and observed error before attributing missing history to it. Do not switch installation channels or claim all Store sessions fail based on that historical report.

Mass merge wrecks UI usability

With 700+ sessions in one accountId, the app's session list becomes unreadable. Prefer selective restore one-at-a-time when you actually need a specific thread.

Recommended long-term

Preserve the project's canonical transcript archive and durable task/handoff state regardless of UI choice. CLI and desktop have different persistence/restore contracts; neither is a substitute for verified backups. Choose a runtime from the required capabilities and observed behavior, not a universal recommendation to move serious work away from desktop.

Files

• scripts/sessions_registry.py — interactive HTML registry, opens in browser
• scripts/sessions_inventory.py — full text table (grep-friendly)
• scripts/sessions_find.py — substring search
• scripts/sessions_restore.py — selective copy with verify and audit log

macOS specifics

All four scripts detect platform via sys.platform and pick the right path automatically — no flags needed on Mac.

• Storage path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<acct>/<org>/local_<sid>.json
• Legacy path: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/local-agent-mode-sessions/<acct>/<org>/local_<sid>.json
• HTML auto-open: uses open <html> (system default browser)
• Different packaging: the Windows MSIX report does not establish macOS behavior; verify the installed macOS build and observed error independently.
• Spotlight bonus: mdfind -onlyin ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/ "<query>" works on session JSONs (indexes content), faster than find for one-off lookups
• Reveal in Finder after restore: open -R ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<acct>/<org>/local_<sid>.json

License

Public domain. This is a community session-file discovery and recovery tool; its usefulness depends on the verified local layout and failure, not a universal product-bug diagnosis.

See also

• claude-sync (CLI only): https://github.com/tawanorg/claude-sync
• claude-session-restore (CLI only): https://github.com/ZENG3LD/claude-session-restore
• CLI multi-account guide: https://medium.com/@buwanekasumanasekara/setting-up-multiple-claude-code-accounts-on-your-local-machine-f8769a36d1b1