diff --git a/src/CodexAcpClient.ts b/src/CodexAcpClient.ts
index a780eecd..32c9b240 100644
--- a/src/CodexAcpClient.ts
+++ b/src/CodexAcpClient.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ import type {AuthenticationStatusResponse} from "./AcpExtensions";
  */
 export const CUSTOM_GATEWAY_PROVIDER_ID = "custom-gateway";
 
+const SESSION_LIST_PAGE_SIZE = 100;
+
 /**
  * ACP `LlmProtocol` values Codex can route through the custom gateway, mapped to
  * the Codex `wire_api`. Codex only supports the OpenAI Responses wire API here.
@@ -824,8 +826,12 @@ export class CodexAcpClient {
         const modelProviders = preferredProvider ? [preferredProvider] : [];
         const listResponse = await this.codexClient.threadList({
             cursor: request.cursor ?? null,
+            limit: SESSION_LIST_PAGE_SIZE,
+            sortKey: "updated_at",
+            sortDirection: "desc",
             modelProviders: modelProviders,
             sourceKinds: sourceKinds,
+            ...(requestedCwd && path.isAbsolute(requestedCwd) ? {cwd: requestedCwd} : {}),
         });
 
         const mapThreadToSession = (thread: Thread) => ({
@@ -835,7 +841,7 @@ export class CodexAcpClient {
             updatedAt: new Date(thread.updatedAt * 1000).toISOString(),
         });
 
-        if (listResponse.data.length === 0) {
+        if (listResponse.data.length === 0 && !requestedCwd) {
             const diagnostics = await this.runSessionListDiagnostics();
             logger.log("Session list diagnostics", diagnostics);
         }
diff --git a/src/__tests__/CodexACPAgent/list-sessions.test.ts b/src/__tests__/CodexACPAgent/list-sessions.test.ts
index 36529576..b6a03179 100644
--- a/src/__tests__/CodexACPAgent/list-sessions.test.ts
+++ b/src/__tests__/CodexACPAgent/list-sessions.test.ts
@@ -76,6 +76,10 @@ describe("CodexACPAgent - list sessions", () => {
         const response = await codexAcpAgent.listSessions(params);
 
         expect(codexAppServerClient.threadList).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.objectContaining({
+            cwd: "/repo/project",
+            limit: 100,
+            sortKey: "updated_at",
+            sortDirection: "desc",
             sourceKinds: [
                 "cli",
                 "vscode",
@@ -89,6 +93,30 @@ describe("CodexACPAgent - list sessions", () => {
         );
     });
 
+    it("does not run global diagnostics for an empty cwd-filtered page", async () => {
+        const fixture = createCodexMockTestFixture();
+        const codexAcpAgent = fixture.getCodexAcpAgent();
+        const codexAcpClient = fixture.getCodexAcpClient();
+        const codexAppServerClient = fixture.getCodexAppServerClient();
+
+        codexAcpClient.authRequired = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(false);
+        codexAppServerClient.threadList = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({
+            data: [],
+            nextCursor: null,
+        });
+
+        const response = await codexAcpAgent.listSessions({
+            cwd: "/repo/project",
+            cursor: null,
+        });
+
+        expect(response).toEqual({
+            sessions: [],
+            nextCursor: null,
+        });
+        expect(codexAppServerClient.threadList).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    });
+
     it("should prefer the explicit thread name as the session title", async () => {
         const fixture = createCodexMockTestFixture();
         const codexAcpAgent = fixture.getCodexAcpAgent();