Desktop (Linux): Code tab session started without a project folder runs in a throwaway scratch workspace, silently disabling SessionStart hooks

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing requests and this issue is not a duplicate
• This is a single issue (not multiple)

Environment

• Claude Desktop 2.2553.1 (deb package)
• Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS (server install with KDE Plasma added), Wayland
• Code tab, local session

Summary

When a Code tab session is started without picking a project folder, the app
does not fall back to a real directory. It creates a throwaway workspace:

~/.config/Claude/scratch-workspaces/<uuid>/<uuid>/scratch-<date>-<hash>

This differs from the behaviour described in #79804 (falls back to $HOME)
and #90736 (falls back to the globally last-used folder). In both of those the
cwd is at least a real, persistent directory. Here it is a directory that
exists only for the lifetime of the session.

Impact: SessionStart hooks fail silently

This is the part I have not seen reported. settings.json hooks are shared
between CLI and Desktop, and they do fire in the Desktop app — I verified
UserPromptSubmit, PreToolUse and Stop all trigger normally.

But a SessionStart hook that derives a workspace identity from cwd gets a
path that matches nothing it knows, so it exits without output. In my setup
that meant no session notes, no required reading, and no issue inbox — and
crucially no error, because "unknown directory, stay quiet" is the correct
behaviour for such a hook. The failure is indistinguishable from "nothing to
report".

A user with project-scoped hooks therefore loses them entirely, with no signal
that anything was skipped.

Steps to reproduce

1. On Linux, launch the Desktop app and open the Code tab.
2. Start a new session without selecting a project folder.
3. Run pwd in the session.

Expected

The session starts in a real directory — the last-used folder, a configurable
default, or an explicit prompt to choose one.

Actual

The session starts in a per-session scratch directory that is removed when the
session ends.

Request

Either of these would resolve it:

1. A configurable default project folder for new Code tab sessions. Cowork
   appears to have gained this (see #44933); the Code tab has not. I could not
   find any such setting in Settings → Claude Code, nor a documented key in the
   settings reference.
2. Failing that, do not fall back to a scratch workspace at all — require a
   folder, or reuse the last one.

Notes on workarounds I checked

• No CLI flag equivalent exists (the "CLI flag equivalents" table in the
  desktop docs lists none for the working directory).
• The .desktop entry cannot carry one: Exec=claude-desktop %U takes URLs,
  and /usr/bin/claude-desktop is a binary, not a wrapper script.
• The claude:// deep links shipped in the app bundle (code/new,
  code/continue, code/needs-input) accept no folder parameter.

Related

• #44933 — Cowork: default project folder (same need, different surface)
• #90736 — new session inherits global last-used folder
• #79804 — session without project folder defaults cwd to $HOME

Reproduce the Code tab session from the issue and confirm its working directory with pwd. Then inspect the Desktop documentation, settings.json handling, and the code/new deep-link entry point for working-directory selection; done means a new session uses a persistent directory or explicitly requires one, with SessionStart hooks receiving that directory.