repair-session-path

name	repair-session-path
description	Use when a Claude Code session is orphaned, its working directory was deleted, or you need to relocate a session to a different project directory. Triggers on "session not found", "folder no longer exists", orphaned session recovery.

Session Path Correction

Claude Code stores sessions under ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-cwd>/. The project directory is determined by the working directory when the session starts. If the session's cwd directory is deleted during the session, the session becomes orphaned — it won't appear in claude -c from any existing directory.

Prevention

• NEVER delete, deinit, or remove the directory a session is running from. If you need to restructure a repo (moving submodules, deiniting directories, etc.), do it from the repo root — not from inside a subdirectory that will be removed.
• If you must remove the current working directory (e.g., replacing a submodule with a new structure), switch the session's working directory to the repo root FIRST by running commands with absolute paths from the parent.

Recovery: Relocate a session

1. Encode the target path by replacing every / with - (e.g., /Users/asher/Dropbox/Projects/xnn → -Users-asher-Dropbox-Projects-xnn).

2. Find the session files under ~/.claude/projects/<old-encoded-path>/:

   • <session-id>.jsonl — the transcript
   • <session-id>/ — subdirectory containing subagents/ and tool-results/

3. Ensure the target project directory exists:

   mkdir -p ~/.claude/projects/<new-encoded-path>
   

4. Move both the jsonl file and the subdirectory:

   mv ~/.claude/projects/<old>/<session-id>.jsonl ~/.claude/projects/<new>/
   mv ~/.claude/projects/<old>/<session-id>/     ~/.claude/projects/<new>/
   

5. Verify by running claude --resume <session-id> from the target directory, or claude -c if it should be the most recent session there.

6. Update cwd fields inside the jsonl to match the new path:

   sed -i '' 's|"cwd":"/old/path"|"cwd":"/new/path"|g' ~/.claude/projects/<new>/<session-id>.jsonl
   

7. Desktop app sessions (CRITICAL): The Claude desktop app stores its own session metadata at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<accountId>/<orgId>/local_<sessionId>.json. Each file contains cwd, originCwd, and optionally worktreePath/worktreeName fields. These must also be updated:

   grep -rl "/old/path" ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/ 2>/dev/null
   sed -i '' 's|/old/path|/new/path|g' <each matching file>
   

   Also check ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/git-worktrees.json if the session used a worktree. Restart the desktop app after editing.