diff --git a/src/apps/officer-web/Screens/Dashboard/ChatHistory/index.tsx b/src/apps/officer-web/Screens/Dashboard/ChatHistory/index.tsx
index 44a726fd..4d583284 100644
--- a/src/apps/officer-web/Screens/Dashboard/ChatHistory/index.tsx
+++ b/src/apps/officer-web/Screens/Dashboard/ChatHistory/index.tsx
@@ -64,6 +64,22 @@ export const SessionListPage = ({ isNew }: SessionListPageProps) => {
     }
   }, [rawWorkspace.isLoaded, workspace.value, rawWorkspace.value]);
 
+  // Retire a legacy `?cwd=`. Nothing reads it any more and nothing writes it, but a refresh re-requests
+  // the address bar verbatim — so one left over from before the path-based groups sits there forever,
+  // looking like it means something. On a bare /chat it still says which group you wanted, so upgrade
+  // it to the path form rather than dropping it; anywhere else the session decides its own directory
+  // and the parameter is simply removed. Other params are left alone.
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const params = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
+    const legacyCwd = params.get('cwd');
+    if (legacyCwd === null) return;
+    params.delete('cwd');
+    const rest = params.toString();
+    const canBeUpgraded = !sessionId && !isNew && !groupCwd && legacyCwd.startsWith('/');
+    const path = canBeUpgraded ? chatListPath(legacyCwd) : window.location.pathname;
+    navigate(`${path}${rest ? `?${rest}` : ''}`, { replace: true });
+  }, [sessionId, isNew, groupCwd, navigate]);
+
   // Fresh /chat/<id> (deep-link or refresh): all we have is the id. Resolve the session by id — the
   // backend scans project groups — so the cwd picker lands on its real dir AND the chat resumes, exactly
   // as clicking it from the list would. Guarded so it never clobbers an already-loaded selection.