claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix `/desktop` fails: "Cannot determine working directory … transcript may be incomplete" after EnterWorktree→ExitWorktree (transcript fragmented across project dirs; bridge-session record has no cwd)

Summary

Running /desktop after an EnterWorktree → ExitWorktree cycle in the same session fails to hand off to the Desktop app with:

Cannot determine working directory for CLI session <session-id> — the transcript may be incomplete

The session has plenty of transcript content. The real problem is that the session's transcript is fragmented across two ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/ directories, and the fragment /desktop resolves to is a bridge-session record that has no cwd field.

Environment

• Claude Code CLI: 2.1.158
• Desktop: Claude 1.9659.2 (390d6c) — 2026-05-28T21:50:01Z
• Platform: macOS (Darwin 24.6.0)

What's on disk

For a single session id <SID> there are two transcript files:

1. ~/.claude/projects/<parent-slug>/<SID>.jsonl — 1 line, no cwd:

   {"type":"bridge-session","sessionId":"<SID>","bridgeSessionId":"cse_…","lastSequenceNum":0}

2. ~/.claude/projects/<worktree-slug>/<SID>.jsonl — the real conversation (~1.2k lines). Its cwd values are present (both the worktree path and the parent path), but note the first line is {"type":"last-prompt","cwd":null,…}.

/desktop is invoked after ExitWorktree (so the session cwd is back at the parent). It writes the bridge-session record under the parent slug; the Desktop app then resolves session <SID> to that parent-slug fragment — which carries no cwd — and errors.

Repro (worktree-in-iCloud / separate gitdir NOT required)

1. Start a CLI session in a git repo
2. EnterWorktree (create/enter a worktree)
3. Do some work
4. ExitWorktree with keep
5. /desktop

→ Desktop errors: Cannot determine working directory … the transcript may be incomplete

Root cause

• A session that changes cwd via Enter/Exit worktree writes transcript entries under different projects/<slug>/ dirs (the slug is derived from cwd).
• The /desktop bridge record is written under the current (post-exit) cwd's slug, which need not be the slug holding the conversation — and the bridge record itself carries no cwd.
• Desktop's cwd resolution then sees a fragment with no usable cwd (no field at all, or a leading cwd:null line) and gives up.

Suggested fix direction

• When resolving a CLI session's cwd, consult all projects/*/<SID>.jsonl fragments for that session id, not just the one under the current slug.
• Scan for the last non-null cwd (the first line can legitimately be cwd:null) rather than failing on the first/only line.
• Fallback: derive cwd from the projects/<slug> directory name, which already encodes the path.

Related

• #62017 (same area, my earlier report): /desktop on an empty first-command session → CLI session transcript not found. Same theme — /desktop resolves to a transcript that can't yield a cwd.
• #41723 — "/desktop fails to import CLI sessions when first JSONL line has no cwd" (closed/dup); the cwd:null first-line angle.
• #41688 — "transcript has no cwd — cannot import after worktree deletion" (closed; a fix was said to ship in the next Desktop version), and #48809 (a later recurrence, marked stale). This Enter/Exit-worktree transcript-fragmentation path does not appear to be covered by that fix.