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[Bug] Session history does not respect custom project-local sessionDir #1732
Description
What happened? / 问题描述
Description
When Pi is configured to store sessions inside the project's .pi directory, PI-Desktop correctly respects this configuration when creating new sessions.
However, after reopening PI-Desktop or the project, previously created sessions are not discovered.
It appears that PI-Desktop only searches Pi's default global session directory (~/.pi/agent/sessions/) instead of the custom session directory configured for the project.
Steps to reproduce / 复现步骤
Steps to Reproduce
-
Configure Pi to use a project-local session directory in
.pi/settings.json:{ "sessionDir": ".pi/sessions" } -
Open the project in PI-Desktop.
-
Create a new session and send a message.
-
Verify that the session file is correctly saved under the project's
.pi/sessionsdirectory. -
Close and reopen PI-Desktop.
-
Open the same project and check the session history.
Expected behavior / 预期行为
Expected Behavior
PI-Desktop should discover and load existing sessions from the configured sessionDir, just as it uses that directory when creating new sessions.
Actual behavior / 实际行为
Actual Behavior
New sessions are saved to the correct custom directory, but previously created sessions do not appear in the session history after reopening the application.
PI-Desktop appears to search only the default global Pi session directory.
Suggested Fix
Ensure that session discovery and session creation use the same resolved session directory, respecting the project's sessionDir configuration.
Ideally, session discovery should follow Pi's native session directory resolution behavior rather than assuming the default global path.
App version / 应用版本
0.13.3
Operating system / 操作系统
Windows
Extra environment / 其他环境信息
No response
Logs / 日志
Screenshots / 截图
No response
Activity
muzimu217 commentedon Oct 17, 2026
Statically confirmed the asymmetry, with one important correction to the framing:
sessionDiris not a setting PI-Desktop implements at all — the key has zero references acrossapps/,packages/andcrates/(verified by grep overmain@4f9f051e5).What each layer actually does:
@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent1.1.0,core/session-manager.js: the default session directory for a cwd is the encoded global path~/.pi/agent/sessions/--encoded-cwd--(getDefaultSessionDirPath()); theSessionManageraccepts a customsessionDirparameter, but only if its caller passes one.So the likely split is: whatever created your sessions inside the project's
.pi/sessionswas honoring the project setting at a layer below the desktop (the pi CLI/agent entry —main.jsdoes referencesessionDir), while the desktop's embedding never forwards that override. Net effect: creation and discovery disagree on the directory, which is your bug.Fix direction for the maintainers: either (a) have the desktop read the project
sessionDiroverride and pass it through to the sameSessionManagerused for listing, so creation and history share one source of truth, or (b) documentsessionDiras a CLI-only setting and have the desktop ignore it on creation too — currently the two halves of the product disagree, which is the worst of both.fix(agent-runtime): discover native sessions in project sessionDir
fix(agent-runtime): tolerate the Windows symlink privilege in the ses…
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