Resume picker only shows ~8 most recent sessions, older sessions not resumable

[vinnichase]

Description

The /resume session picker only displays approximately 8 of the most recent sessions, even when many more sessions exist. In my case, the sessions-index.json contains 19 sessions for a single project, but only ~8 are shown in the picker.

Additionally, attempting to resume an older session by its ID directly fails with "Session was not found", even though the session entry exists in sessions-index.json and the corresponding .jsonl file is present on disk.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use Claude Code extensively in a project over several weeks, accumulating 15+ sessions
2. Name sessions with /rename for easy identification
3. Run /resume — only the ~8 most recent sessions appear in the picker
4. Try to resume an older session by ID: claude --resume <session-id> or /resume <session-id>
5. Get error: Session <id> was not found.

Expected Behavior

• The resume picker should show all sessions (with pagination/scrolling if needed)
• All sessions listed in sessions-index.json should be resumable by ID or name

Actual Behavior

• Only ~8 most recent sessions are shown in the picker
• Older sessions that exist in sessions-index.json cannot be resumed by ID (returns "not found")

Environment

• macOS (Darwin 25.2.0)
• Claude Code (latest as of 2026-02-09)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] /resume only shows a few recent conversations, most sessions missing from picker #23375
2. [BUG] Not able to --continue sessions with large .jsonl files. Those sessions are also dropped from --resume overview #23072
3. Named sessions from older versions not resumable in v2.1.x #23933

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[tracymelody]

Root cause analysis from source reverse-engineering (v2.1.39)

Spent some time tracing through the minified cli.js to find the exact mechanism. Here's what's happening:

1. sessions-index.json is not used

Despite what many reports assume, /resume in v2.1.31+ does not read sessions-index.json. The dd1 function scans the project directory with readdirSync, filters for UUID-named .jsonl files, and stats each one. Session metadata is extracted lazily by reading the first/last 16KB of each file (Xwz function).

2. Initial batch is hardcoded to 10

MY1(allStatLogs, 0, K=10) loads the first 10 visible sessions. Further sessions are supposed to load via an onLoadMore callback when the user scrolls near the end of the list.

3. Load-more trigger depends on terminal height

The page size is calculated as:

gz = Math.max(1, Math.floor((terminal_rows - ~10) / 3))

Each session entry takes ~3 rows in the picker. With a typical 24-row terminal, gz = 4 (only 4 items visible at a time).

The load-more fires via a useEffect when:

highlighted_position + (gz * 2) >= loaded_count

With gz=4 and 10 loaded items, you need position + 8 >= 10, so highlighting item 3+ should trigger it. However, the Ink SelectInput wraps at the list boundary (item 10 → item 1), and the filter pipeline (C7z, projectPath filter, branch filter) can transiently reduce the list length, causing the effect dependencies to not re-fire correctly.

4. The C7z filter can discard "lite" sessions

Before sessions are lazily loaded with full metadata, they're marked isLite: true with empty firstPrompt/customTitle. The C7z filter returns false for these, which can reduce the visible list below gz, hiding the "(X of Y)" counter and making the component behave as if all sessions are loaded.

Workaround

claude --resume <keyword> bypasses the picker UI entirely and searches all sessions on disk. This works correctly even when the /resume interactive picker fails to show them.

Environment

• macOS, Claude Code v2.1.39
• Terminal: 24 rows
• 32 session files in project directory, 24 with content — picker shows ~10 then wraps

[tracymelody]

Fix: Patch the batch size in cli.js

The root cause is that /resume loads only 10 sessions initially and the load-more pagination is broken. The simplest fix is to increase the batch size so all sessions load at once.

One-liner patch

CLI_JS="$(dirname "$(readlink "$(which claude)")")/../lib/node_modules/@anthropic-ai/claude-code/cli.js"
cp "$CLI_JS" "$CLI_JS.bak"
sed -i '' \
  -e 's/async function _c1(A,q,K=10)/async function _c1(A,q,K=500)/' \
  -e 's/function mN6(A,q,K=10)/function mN6(A,q,K=500)/' \
  -e 's/async function lT6(A,q=10)/async function lT6(A,q=500)/' \
  "$CLI_JS"

On Linux, use sed -i instead of sed -i ''.

This changes the initial batch from 10 → 500 in the three session-loading functions (_c1, mN6, lT6). The picker then loads all sessions upfront instead of relying on the broken scroll-to-load-more logic.

What it fixes

• /resume now shows all sessions instead of ~10
• "Show all projects" toggle also loads all sessions
• claude --resume <keyword> already worked — this fixes the interactive picker

Caveats

• Overwritten on every claude update — re-run after updating
• Minor increase in picker open time if you have hundreds of sessions (each file's first+last 16KB is read), negligible for <100 sessions
• To undo: cp "$CLI_JS.bak" "$CLI_JS"

Suggestion for Anthropic

Consider making this a configurable setting (e.g., resumeBatchSize in settings.json) or simply increasing the default. 10 is too low for anyone who uses Claude Code regularly. Alternatively, fix the useEffect load-more trigger so it fires reliably regardless of terminal height.

[gilbert-umuzi]

Confirmed on v2.1.39 (macOS, compiled Mach-O binary).

The limit is hardcoded as a default parameter A=10 in two functions in the bundled source:

async function ewR(T, R, A=10) { return (await ZpT(T, R, A)).logs }
async function ZpT(T, R, A=10) { /* calls A1T(_, 0, A) */ }

These control how many sessions are loaded for the picker. Found at offset ~69288748 in the binary.

Attempted a binary patch (A=10 → A=99) but macOS code signing rejects the modified binary (zsh: killed), so there's no viable user-side workaround beyond claude --resume or using / search in the picker.

Request: Make this configurable (e.g., a resumeLimit setting) or raise the default significantly. 10 is too low for active projects — my project directory has 434 session files.