Sessions sidebar
The Sessions sidebar
Repo/branch grouping vs. a timeline, the scope toggle, favorites, in-view search, sorting and refresh, and the active-session highlight.
Claude Code stores every session as a JSONL file under ~/.claude/projects/. Over time these pile up across many repositories and branches. Claude Session Monitor (v1.0.0) scans them and surfaces them in an activity-bar view called "Claude Sessions" — a browsable, searchable list. This article covers that sidebar in detail.
Two ways to organize: repo/branch vs. a timeline
- Group by repository → git branch — see everything that happened in a specific project.
- Flat, time-sorted list — no grouping, every session in chronological order, for the most recent handful.
Whichever you pick, each group header shows a live count that updates as sessions appear or filters change.
Scope: all repositories or just the current workspace
A toggle at the top of the view switches between:
- All repositories — every repo found under ~/.claude/projects/.
- Current workspace only — just the repo matching the workspace you have open.
When you juggle many projects, "current workspace only" keeps unrelated sessions out of the view, so you're not scrolling past three other codebases to find yesterday's work.
Favorites: pin the sessions you keep coming back to
Hover over any session to star it. Starred sessions appear in a separate Favorites group regardless of the current grouping mode, so the ones you revisit most are always one click away.
In-view search
The built-in search box filters by title, repository name, or branch name. As you type, the list narrows in real time; the grouping stays intact and non-matching entries are hidden. Clear the box and everything reappears exactly as it was.
Sorting, collapse/expand, and refresh
The view title bar bundles a few controls:
- Scope toggle (all repositories / current workspace).
- Sort toggle (by branch / by time).
- One-click collapse all / expand all.
- A manual refresh button.
Rather than clicking refresh, the csm.autoRefresh setting (on by default) keeps the sidebar in sync whenever session files change. When the Sessions view is focused, you can also refresh with Ctrl+R / Cmd+R.
Active-session highlight and timestamps
When a session's detail tab is open and focused, the matching sidebar entry is highlighted automatically, so you always know which session you're looking at.
Timestamps are relative — like "5m ago" — and fall back to an absolute date once enough time has passed, instead of a vague "months ago".