Session Management — Cheat Sheet

Daily reference for managing Claude Code sessions effectively.

Starting a Session

Situation	Command	Notes
New task	claude	Global rules auto-load
Continue last session	claude --continue or claude -c	Restores full history
Resume named session	claude --resume "name" or claude -r "name"	Pick up by name or ID
Interactive resume	/resume (inside Claude)	Shows session picker
Fork (try alternative)	claude -c --fork-session	Branches off, original preserved
Use the launcher	claude-code ~/projects/my-app	Uses cmux on macOS, tmux elsewhere
Sync project to latest template	claude-code sync [path] [--dry-run]	Updates commands and .claude/ files from template

You do not need to run /init every time. /init is a one-time command to scaffold a project-level CLAUDE.md for a new repo. Global rules already cover everything generic.

During a Long Session

Action	Command	When
Check context usage	/context	Periodically — shows visual grid
Compress history	/compact or /compact focus on X	When context is getting heavy
Check token spend	/cost	Monitor session spend
Name your session	/rename "descriptive-name"	Before switching tasks or ending
View loaded memory	/memory	Review/edit what Claude has loaded
Rewind a mistake	Esc + Esc or /rewind	Undo file changes or roll back

Checkpointing & Rewind

Claude Code automatically checkpoints conversation state and file edits made through Claude’s file-editing tools (Edit, Write, etc.). You can rewind to any of those points without leaving the session.

Action	How
Open the rewind menu	Double-tap Escape, or run /rewind
Restore conversation only	Pick a message in the rewind menu, choose “conversation”
Restore code only	Pick a message, choose “code”
Restore both	Pick a message, choose “both”
Summarize forward from here	Pick a message, choose “summarize” — keeps the prefix, replaces the rest with a summary

Persistence: Checkpoints survive across sessions. Close the terminal, come back tomorrow, run /rewind — the menu still has the snapshots.

Scope — what rewind tracks:

• File edits made through Claude’s file-editing tools (Edit, Write, NotebookEdit).
• Conversation state.

Scope — what rewind does NOT track (do not rely on it for these):

• Files modified by bash commands run through Claude. This includes anything written via cat >, sed -i, mv, rm, code formatters invoked from Bash, build steps, generated files, etc. If Claude ran it from a shell, rewind will not undo it.
• Files modified by editors, formatters, or build tools running outside Claude.
• Git operations (commits, branch switches, stashes).
• External process side effects (database writes, deployed artifacts, network calls).

Because bash-side file changes are out of scope, treat rewind as a fast undo for Claude’s own edit-tool changes — not a general-purpose safety net for everything that happened in the session. Commit at meaningful boundaries; rely on git, not rewind, for anything you can’t afford to lose.

Switching Tasks in Same Terminal

/rename "previous-work-name"     ← name what you were doing
/clear                           ← fresh context, global rules reload
(start new task)                 ← clean slate

Ending a Session

"save memory about X"            ← tell Claude to remember key decisions
/rename "descriptive-name"       ← name it for later resumption

What’s Automatic

What	Stored where	Automatic?
Conversation history	Internal session storage	Yes — resume with --continue
File edit checkpoints	Internal	Yes — rewind with Esc+Esc
Auto-memory (patterns)	~/.claude/projects/<project>/memory/	Yes (if enabled)
Global rules loading	~/.claude/CLAUDE.md + ~/.claude/rules/	Yes — every session

What’s NOT Automatic

• Project session log (doc_internal/HISTORY.md): Add to your project CLAUDE.md if you want it.
• Explicit memory requests: Say "remember that we use pnpm" to save to auto-memory.
• Plan mode locality: Claude Code’s /plan mode writes a system file to ~/.claude/plans/ — ephemeral and invisible to new sessions or other copilot tools. Write plan artifacts to the project directory FIRST, during plan creation: specs/<feature-id>/plan.md for SDD feature work, or doc_internal/plans/ for ad-hoc plans. Do not wait until plan mode exits. The ~/.claude/plans/ file is not the authoritative plan — the project-local file is.
• Spec artifact handoff: The Plan agent writes specs/<id>/plan.md during planning (and spec.md when spec_mode is full or lightweight). Ensure they are committed so the Build agent can read them. Include specs/lessons-learned.md in handoff if it was updated.

Parallel Development with Git Worktrees

Git worktrees let you work on multiple branches simultaneously without stashing or switching. Each worktree is a separate checkout sharing the same .git directory.

When to Use

• Running a long build/test on one branch while coding on another
• Comparing behaviour between branches side-by-side
• Keeping a stable branch checked out while experimenting

Quick Reference

Action	Command
Create worktree	git worktree add ../feature-branch feature-branch
List worktrees	git worktree list
Remove worktree	git worktree remove ../feature-branch
Prune stale entries	git worktree prune

Workflow with claude-code Launcher

# Create a worktree for a feature branch
git worktree add ../my-feature feature/my-feature

# Start a Claude session in the worktree
claude-code ../my-feature

# When done, clean up
git worktree remove ../my-feature

Tips

• Worktrees share the object store — no extra clone needed, very fast to create.
• Each worktree has its own index/staging area, so you can stage independently.
• Avoid having the same branch checked out in two worktrees (Git prevents this by default).
• Use git worktree prune periodically to clean up entries for deleted directories.

All Slash Commands

Command	Purpose
/init	One-time: scaffold project CLAUDE.md
/memory	View/edit loaded memory files
/compact [focus]	Compress context with optional focus
/context	Visual context usage grid
/cost	Token usage for this session
/clear	Wipe conversation, keep session
/rename "name"	Name session for later resume
/resume [name]	Resume a previous session
/rewind	Undo file changes or conversation
/config	Open settings UI
/status	Version, model, account info
/doctor	Health check on install
/model	Switch AI model
/mcp	Manage MCP server connections
/export [file]	Export conversation to file or clipboard
/plan	Enter plan mode (or Shift+Tab twice)
/stats	Daily usage and session history