VS Code Extension: Past Conversations not loaded after restart

[cyberdury]

Description

After restarting VS Code, the "Past Conversations" list in the Claude Code extension is empty, even though conversation transcripts are stored locally.

Evidence

Conversation data IS being persisted correctly:

• Location: ~/.claude/projects/<project-path>/
• Format: .jsonl files (one per conversation)
• My project folder contains 300+ MB of conversation transcripts

Example:

~/.claude/projects/c--Users-vertr-Desktop-KI-Monitor-Sources-VS-Workspace-DURY-LEGAL-KI-MONITOR/
├── 0007dfc8-cbf3-4f50-b334-64c66137a693.jsonl (734 KB)
├── 00230cc5-48b2-412d-b80d-e40d822c8f9c.jsonl (86 KB)
├── ... (hundreds more)

Expected Behavior

After restarting VS Code, the extension should:

1. Load existing conversation transcripts from disk
2. Display them in the "Past Conversations" panel
3. Allow resuming any of the stored conversations

Current Behavior

• "Past Conversations" is empty after VS Code restart
• CLI workaround works: claude --continue and claude --resume can access the stored conversations
• Data is NOT lost, just not displayed in the VS Code UI

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• VS Code Extension: Claude Code (latest)
• Storage location: C:\Users\<user>\.claude\

Suggested Enhancement

Optionally allow users to configure:

• Number of past conversations to display (e.g., last 10-15)
• Storage location (for users who want to use a different drive)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[roxstar-ai]

So I was having the same issue and I figured out that when Claude coat up upgraded somehow it created a new doc Claude folder and post upgrade. New conversations were being saved inside of that and it found all of my old conversations in an old dot Claude folder important to note that seems like the file that contains the history is a hidden file. I asked Claude code to merge the two instances into the current one and it fixed. It all seems good now this is the second time I've had this happen with an upgrade.

[rtsoftvrana]

I'm still having this issue, version 2.0.73.

[tsylvester]

Same problem but apparently claude --resume works on the immediate last conversation even in the VSC extension. Comments indicate that's expected to be CLI only but it works.