sessions-index.json not updated - claude -c fails to find sessions

[georgesamuelson]

Summary

sessions-index.json files are created with empty entries: [] and never updated, even though session .jsonl files are being written correctly. This causes claude -c (continue) to fail to find previous sessions.

Claude Code Version: 2.1.29
Platform: macOS Darwin 25.2.0

Affected Projects

Project	Session Files	Index Entries	Status
georgesamuelson-com-website	5 files (1.5MB main session)	0	❌ Broken
ea-jorts	11 files (multi-MB sessions)	1	❌ Partial
bg-wayne-website	47 files	13	❌ Partial
mac-terminal	5 files	0	❌ Broken

Steps to Reproduce

1. Start a new Claude Code session in a project directory
2. Have a conversation (verified: 459 messages recorded in .jsonl)
3. Exit cleanly with /exit
4. Run claude -c to continue

Expected: Previous session loads
Actual: "No sessions found" or starts fresh session

Technical Details

Session storage location:

~/.claude/projects/-Users-{user}-Projects-{project-name}/
├── sessions-index.json      # Created empty, never updated
├── {uuid}.jsonl             # Session data IS written correctly
└── {uuid}/                  # Subagent data exists

Evidence of bug:

# Index created at 18:11, never modified despite active sessions
$ stat sessions-index.json
"Feb  1 18:11:09 2026" "Feb  1 18:11:09 2026"  # birth = modify time

# But session file actively growing
$ ls -la *.jsonl
-rw------- 1.5M Feb  1 19:41 47d613a9-....jsonl  # 459 messages

Contents of broken index:

{
  "version": 1,
  "entries": [],
  "originalPath": "/Users/georgesamuelson/Projects/georgesamuelson-com-website"
}

Workaround

Manually rebuild index from .jsonl files by parsing each session file and creating index entries.

Impact

• Data NOT lost - all conversation history is in .jsonl files
• Resume broken - claude -c and claude --resume fail to find sessions
• Inconsistent - some projects work fine, others don't (possible race condition?)

Additional Context

• Some projects have working indexes while others in the same environment are broken
• Bug appears to be project-specific, not global
• Using Ghostty terminal
• Clean /exit used, not terminal close

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. Sessions not added to sessions-index.json, invisible to resume #22205
2. /resume command missing most sessions - sessions-index.json not syncing with session files on disk #22114
3. [BUG] Past conversations not showing in dropdown - sessions-index.json not being updated. #18619

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Tecttano]

Bump