Claude Code Session Recovery Skill

Self-Evolving Skill: This skill improves through use. If instructions are wrong, parameters drifted, or a workaround was needed — fix this file immediately, don't defer. Only update for real, reproducible issues.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

"No conversations found to resume" when running claude -r
New conversations not creating session files
Sessions appearing in wrong locations (/tmp/ instead of ~/.claude/projects/)
Session history missing after environment changes
IDE/terminal settings affecting session creation
Need to migrate or recover 600+ legacy sessions

Quick Reference

Official Session Storage

Standard Location: ~/.claude/projects/

Structure:

~/.claude/projects/
├── -home-username-my-project/     # Encoded absolute path
│   └── 364695f1-13e7-4cbb-ad4b-0eb416feb95d.jsonl
└── -tmp-another-project/
    └── a8e39846-ceca-421d-b4bd-3ba0eb1b3145.jsonl

Format: One JSON event per line (JSONL), UUID-based filenames

Critical Pitfall: HOME Variable

Problem

Claude Code uses $HOME environment variable to determine session storage location. If $HOME is incorrect, sessions go to wrong directory or disappear.

Symptoms

claude -r shows "No conversations found to resume"
New conversations work but files don't appear in expected location
Sessions found in /tmp/ or other unexpected paths
Works on one machine but not another

Diagnosis

/usr/bin/env bash << 'PREFLIGHT_EOF'
# Step 1: Check current HOME
echo "Current HOME: $HOME"

# Step 2: Check system expectation
echo "Expected HOME: $(getent passwd $(whoami) | cut -d: -f6)"

# Step 3: Find where Claude is actually writing
find /tmp -name "*.jsonl" -path "*/.claude/projects/*" 2>/dev/null
PREFLIGHT_EOF

Reference Documentation

For detailed diagnostic steps and solutions, see:

Troubleshooting Guide - Detailed diagnostic procedures and fixes

Troubleshooting

Issue	Cause	Solution
"No conversations found"	Wrong HOME variable	Verify `$HOME` matches expected user directory
Sessions in /tmp/	HOME set incorrectly	Fix HOME in shell profile, restart terminal
Session files missing	Disk space or permissions	Check `~/.claude/projects/` permissions and disk
Wrong project sessions shown	Path encoding mismatch	Check encoded path matches current working directory
Sessions not persisting	File system issues	Verify write permissions to `~/.claude/projects/`
IDE sessions separate	Different HOME per environment	Ensure consistent HOME across terminal and IDE
Legacy sessions not visible	Migration not complete	See migration section in TROUBLESHOOTING.md
UUID filename corruption	Incomplete writes	Check for partial .jsonl files, remove corrupt ones

Post-Execution Reflection

After this skill completes, check before closing:

Did the command succeed? — If not, fix the instruction or error table that caused the failure.
Did parameters or output change? — If the underlying tool's interface drifted, update Usage examples and Parameters table to match.
Was a workaround needed? — If you had to improvise (different flags, extra steps), update this SKILL.md so the next invocation doesn't need the same workaround.

Only update if the issue is real and reproducible — not speculative.

session-recovery