feat: distinguish Claude Desktop App / IDE / CLI sessions - #175
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Claude Code can be launched from three different surfaces that all show
up as plain `claude` processes today: a terminal CLI install, the Claude
desktop app's bundled Claude Code binary, and an editor extension (VS
Code, Cursor, Windsurf, ...). abtop previously labeled all of them
identically as "claude" with no way to tell which is which.
Add a `LaunchSurface` (Cli/App/Ide) classified from each session's
resolved process command path:
- `.../Claude/claude-code/...` (Electron userData layout) -> App
- `.../extensions/anthropic.claude-code-.../...` -> Ide
- everything else (homebrew/npm/native installs, the auto-updater's
`claude/versions/<ver>` layout) -> Cli (default, unchanged behavior)
The sessions table's existing 3-char agent label ("*CC") now gets a
trailing suffix letter for the less common surfaces: "*CCa" for the
desktop app, "*CCi" for an IDE extension. Plain CLI sessions are
unaffected. Also threaded through to the JSON snapshot (`SessionView`)
for headless consumers.
Codex and OpenCode sessions always report `Cli` — no desktop-app or
editor-extension equivalent is known for those tools.
Add a "Legend" entry to the in-app keybinding help (`?`) explaining the
a/i suffix, in English and Chinese, since the suffix alone isn't
self-explanatory.
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@graykode not sure my updates for the PR description doesn't retain. |
Contributor
Author
There has been a bug preventing me from updating the PR description. It works now. |
graykode
approved these changes
Sep 14, 2026
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Reviewed the changes for release security. No blocking security issues found. Tests and Clippy passed locally. The command-line launch-surface classification can produce incorrect labels, but does not affect permissions or process termination checks.
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Summary
Claude Code can be launched from three different surfaces that all show up as plain
claudeprocesses today: a terminal CLI install, the Claude desktop app's bundled Claude Code binary, and an editor extension (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, ...). abtop previously labeled all of them identically as"claude"with no way to tell which is which.LaunchSurface(Cli/App/Ide) classified from each session's resolved process command path:.../Claude/claude-code/...(Electron userData layout) → App.../extensions/anthropic.claude-code-.../...→ IDEclaude/versions/<ver>layout) → CLI (default, unchanged behavior)*CC) gets a trailing suffix letter for the less common surfaces:*CCafor the desktop app,*CCifor an IDE extension. Plain CLI sessions are unaffected.SessionView) for headless consumers.Cli— no desktop-app or editor-extension equivalent is known for those tools.?) explaining the a/i suffix, in English and Chinese.Test plan
cargo test— 207 passedcargo clippy --all-targets— cleanrustfmt --checkon all touched files — cleanps:draw_sessions_panelviaTestBackendto confirm*CC/*CCa/*CCirender correctly.