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From Terminal Tabs to Project Workspaces: How I Organize Claude Code and Codex Sessions

#claudecode #codex #sessionmanagement #developerworkflow

From Terminal Tabs to Project Workspaces: How I Organize Claude Code and Codex Sessions

I used to manage my AI coding sessions like browser tabs. Open Claude Code in a directory, chat for an hour, switch to another project, come back tomorrow, and... where was I?

The built-in /resume shows a flat list. /continue only works if I remember the session ID. After three months of daily Claude Code and Codex use, I had thirty-plus sessions scattered across six repositories, and zero confidence that I could find the conversation where I debugged that auth issue last Tuesday.

This isn't a Claude Code problem. It's a workspace problem.

What I actually needed

Not a better prompt. Not a bigger context window. I needed:

  1. Project-level grouping — All sessions for backend-api in one place, all sessions for mobile-app in another.
  2. Session discovery — A search that actually works across projects, not just within the current directory.
  3. One-click recovery — Open a previous session without typing /resume and scrolling through a chronological dump.

What I built

I ended up writing a small desktop app called Shelf. It's a Tauri-based workspace manager that sits next to my terminal and tracks every Claude Code and Codex session by project.

Key things it does:

  • Scans ~/.claude/projects/ and ~/.codex/ automatically and groups sessions by git repository.
  • Lists every conversation with a preview of the last few turns, so I can spot "the auth debugging session from Tuesday" without opening it.
  • Restores any session in its original working directory with one click.
  • Embedded terminal — I can open a PTY right inside the app if I just want to check a log without launching Claude Code.

It's not trying to replace Claude Code or Codex. It's just the missing workspace layer.

Architecture notes (for the curious)

  • Tauri v2 + Rust for the backend file scanning and session restoration.
  • TypeScript + Vite for the UI.
  • xterm.js for the embedded terminal.
  • Cross-platform: macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux.

The habit change

The biggest shift wasn't technical. It was mental. I stopped treating each Claude Code session as disposable. Now I name my sessions intentionally, close them cleanly, and trust that I can get back to any project's state within ten seconds.

If you're juggling multiple repos with Claude Code or Codex, the tool is at https://github.com/Harukaon/shelf. It's open source, v0.2.18, and I'd genuinely appreciate feedback or PRs.

What does your Claude Code workspace look like? Still using terminal tabs, or have you found something else that works?

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