Sessions
Continue, resume, and clear Claude Code sessions and their context.
All answers
- How do I clear the Claude Code context?
/clear starts fresh and saves the old conversation. /compact replaces it with a summary. What survives each, and which one you actually want.
- How do I continue the last Claude Code session?
Pick up the most recent Claude Code session in the current directory with one flag. What it restores, why history is scoped per directory, and how long transcripts last.
- What is the difference between claude --continue and claude --resume?
One reopens the newest session in this directory with no questions. The other lets you choose, and can find a session anywhere on the machine.
- Why did my session resume in a different permission mode?
A terminal resume restores the stored permission mode with four exceptions; the picker, /resume and -p runs never restore it. Which case you hit, and the flag that overrides all of them.
- How do I resume a specific Claude Code session?
Open an older Claude Code session instead of the last one. The picker, its search shortcuts, and how a session ID finds a session from any directory.
- Why can't Claude Code find my session?
The five documented reasons a session is not where you look for it, from -p runs kept out of the picker to a transcript past its 30-day retention, and how to check the disk before assuming it is gone.