ccd-session-sync

Keep your Claude Desktop sidebar session list intact when you switch between Claude accounts on macOS — plus a transcript backup that survives the 30‑day cleanup, all git‑versioned and reversible.

Solves the problem in anthropics/claude-code#48511 ("session history lost when switching accounts", closed not planned) and #74662 (request for a local‑sessions view). If Anthropic ships a native fix, you can uninstall this and lose nothing.

The problem

Claude Desktop stores the sidebar session list per logged‑in account:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<accountUUID>/<orgUUID>/local_*.json

Each local_*.json is a tiny index entry that points (via cliSessionId) at the real transcript. When you log into a different account, the app reads that account's (empty) directory and your sidebar looks wiped — even though:

• your conversations are safe — transcripts live account‑agnostically in ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl, and
• claude --resume (press Ctrl+A to show all) can reopen any local session under any login.

Only the Desktop sidebar index is account‑scoped. This tool re‑points that index so both accounts show the same list.

What it does

Component	Job
ccd-migrate	Git‑versioned, tombstone‑aware, newer‑wins merge of the other account's index entries into the current account's dir. Subcommands: --dry-run, status, log, undo, snapshot.
ccd-migrate-auto + launchd	Watches cowork-enabled-cli-ops.json; when the logged‑in account changes it runs ccd-migrate automatically and posts a macOS notification.
claude-archive-sync + launchd	Daily rsync of ~/.claude/projects transcripts to ~/ClaudeArchive (no --delete, so anything the app later prunes stays archived). The real long‑term data‑loss risk is the cleanupPeriodDays retention pruning, not account switching.
claude-second	Optional: launches a second isolated Claude Desktop instance (open -n --user-data-dir=…) so you can run one account per instance and stop switching entirely.

Safety by design

• Never touches your conversations or credentials. It only copies the small index JSONs and (optionally) backs up transcripts read‑only. It never reads or writes the Keychain, OAuth tokens, or oauthAccount.
• The session index is git‑versioned. Every change to the small local_*.json index files is a commit in ~/.ccd-sessions-git; ccd-migrate log shows history and ccd-migrate undo reverts the last migration. (Large local‑agent‑mode payload directories are copied but intentionally not tracked in git — so undo restores the index, not those directories. They're additive/copy‑once and never deleted.)
• Newer‑wins, never destructive. Merges index entries by modification time with atomic temp‑then‑rename writes (Claude never reads a half‑written file); rsync runs without --delete; --dry-run previews everything and writes nothing.
• Reversible install. uninstall.sh removes the agents/scripts and keeps your backups by default.

Install

git clone https://github.com/jeremy9682/ccd-session-sync
cd ccd-session-sync
./install.sh              # scripts -> ~/bin, bootstrap git repo, load launchd agents
# or: ./install.sh --no-agents   (manual `ccd-migrate` only, no background automation)
# or: ./install.sh --dry-run     (print every step, change nothing)

Requirements: macOS, git, python3, rsync, and Claude Desktop launched at least once. Put ~/bin on your PATH.

Use

ccd-migrate status      # accounts, per-dir entry counts, git state
ccd-migrate --dry-run   # preview what would be merged
ccd-migrate             # merge now  (the auto agent also does this on account switch)
ccd-migrate log         # migration history
ccd-migrate undo        # revert the last migration

After any migration, fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop — it reads the session index only at startup.

Finding an old session across accounts without migrating? claude --resume in the project directory, then Ctrl+A.

More than two accounts

Auto‑detection picks the current account as destination and the most‑recently‑active other account as source. With 3+ accounts, force direction:

CCD_FROM=<uuid-prefix> CCD_TO=<uuid-prefix> ccd-migrate

The zero‑switching alternative

If you juggle accounts constantly, run two Desktop instances instead of switching:

claude-second           # opens a 2nd instance with an isolated data dir

Log each instance into its own account with the other instance fully quit (the claude:// login deep‑link goes to an arbitrary running instance — the #1 pitfall). Then both stay logged in, each with its own sidebar, and account switching disappears. Don't run Cowork/local‑agent mode in the second instance unless you have several GB of free disk (it pulls its own VM bundles).

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh          # remove agents + scripts, KEEP git history & archive
./uninstall.sh --purge  # also delete ~/.ccd-sessions-git and ~/ClaudeArchive (irreversible)

Privacy

Your local state is private data — do not paste it into bug reports or commit it anywhere:

• ~/.ccd-sessions-git (the git history) tracks your real session index entries, including account/org UUIDs and session titles.
• ~/ClaudeArchive holds your actual transcripts; the logs and last-owner file contain account UUIDs.
• ccd-migrate status / log and commit messages print account/org identifiers.

None of that is in this repo, and .gitignore keeps it out of any clone. Only the tooling is published.

Known limitations (it's experimental)

• Unofficial / version‑sensitive. Operates on Claude Desktop's internal, undocumented file layout. A future app update could change it and break this tool — worst case it errors out; your data is untouched and git‑backed. No schema/version detection. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic; no warranty; you are responsible for your own backups and for compliance with Claude's terms.
• Heuristic direction. Destination = current account; source = most‑recently‑active other account. With 3+ accounts, or an account that has more than one org directory, it warns and picks the newest — always --dry-run first, and use CCD_FROM=/CCD_TO= to force direction.
• undo reverts the most recent migrate: commit (not necessarily the very last operation) and can conflict if you edited things after; for surgical rollback use ccd-migrate log + git … revert <hash>.
• Tombstones (.tombstones, to keep intentionally‑deleted sessions from reappearing) are hand‑maintained/advanced — the installer seeds an empty one; ignore it unless you need it.
• Writes are not transactional — they land in Claude's live data dir and are then committed to git. Keep the app quit during a manual migration if you want a perfectly clean diff.
• The sidebar's project grouping is derived from repo/PR metadata; this tool does not rewrite originCwd (load‑bearing for worktree/PR features). Sessions group under whatever project directory they actually ran in.
• macOS only (uses launchd + osascript).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.