Claude sessions sync (between desktop-app accounts)

How it works (verified 2026-10-01…07, Claude Code 2.1.286, macOS):

• Session records live in ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions/<accountUuid>/<orgUuid>/local_*.json. The second path level is the organization UUID; the app lists only the current account+org pair, which is why switching accounts hides the other side's sessions.
• Transcripts live in ~/.claude/projects/ and are shared across all accounts — never touch them. A record points at its transcript through the cliSessionId field.
• Active account: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/config.json → lastKnownAccountUuid. The active org folder is the one holding the freshest record (mtime).
• Account switches may leave empty race folders <old-account>/<new-org> — ignore them.

Procedure

1. The app must be fully closed: pgrep -f "/Applications/Claude.app/Contents/MacOS" is empty; otherwise osascript -e 'quit app "Claude"' and wait. Copying while the app is alive can be rolled back by its in-memory list cache (LSS-cached-sessions) and record rewrites.
2. Identify both working folders: under each account UUID take the subfolder with the most local_*.json records (or the freshest one).
3. Run a bidirectional newest-wins sync of local_*.json — the script below. A one-way copy leaves drift: sessions you continued on one side go stale on the other.
4. Merge archived-sessions.idx: union the archived lists of both folders, write the same file into both.
5. Copy missing deleted_* markers in both directions, otherwise deleted sessions resurrect in the picker.
6. Do NOT sync scheduled-tasks.json or backlog/ — each account+org pair keeps its own.
7. Reopen the app, switch the login to the target account, verify the record count in the picker.

Script (edit FIRST/SECOND, app closed)

import os, json, shutil

SESS = os.path.expanduser("~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude-code-sessions")
FIRST  = f"{SESS}/<account-uuid-1>/<org-uuid-1>"
SECOND = f"{SESS}/<account-uuid-2>/<org-uuid-2>"

def records(d):
    return {f: os.path.getmtime(os.path.join(d, f))
            for f in os.listdir(d) if f.startswith("local_") and f.endswith(".json")}

f_rec, s_rec = records(FIRST), records(SECOND)
for f, m in s_rec.items():
    if f not in f_rec or m > f_rec[f]:
        shutil.copy2(os.path.join(SECOND, f), os.path.join(FIRST, f))
for f, m in f_rec.items():
    if f not in s_rec or m > s_rec[f]:
        shutil.copy2(os.path.join(FIRST, f), os.path.join(SECOND, f))

arch = set()
for d in (FIRST, SECOND):
    p = os.path.join(d, "archived-sessions.idx")
    if os.path.exists(p):
        try: arch |= set(json.load(open(p)).get("archived", []))
        except Exception: pass
idx = {"v": 1, "archived": sorted(arch)}
for d in (FIRST, SECOND):
    json.dump(idx, open(os.path.join(d, "archived-sessions.idx"), "w"))

for a, b in ((FIRST, SECOND), (SECOND, FIRST)):
    for f in os.listdir(a):
        if f.startswith("deleted_") and not os.path.exists(os.path.join(b, f)):
            shutil.copy2(os.path.join(a, f), os.path.join(b, f))

Gotchas

• Claude Code cleans old transcripts (about a month back by default): such records return to the picker but open empty. There is nothing to restore from.
• Copies drift apart while you work on one account — rerun the sync on every switch.
• Continuing a moved session sends its transcript to the current account (privacy note for personal-vs-work orgs).
• There is no official cross-account migration (anthropics/claude-code#48511 closed as not planned); terminal claude --resume <id> sees all local sessions under any login.

Background write-up: https://sereja.tech/blog/claude-code-sessions-between-accounts/