Stop and resume a session

Stopping a session keeps its conversation. Open it later and it carries on from where it stopped.

How it works

What you do	What happens
Choose “Stop” in the ⋯ menu	The agent stops. The row stays in the list as “Stopped”
Open a stopped row and resume it	The history stays on screen and the same conversation carries on
Nothing	After 7 days stopped, the session moves to the archive (the conversation stays)

When in doubt, choose “Stop”. It keeps both the conversation and the row, which makes it the safest operation.

Choose how to stop

The operations are in the session row’s ⋯ menu (or right-click). Which items appear depends on the session’s kind and state.

What you want to do	Item	Afterwards	Reversible?
Pause for now and continue later	“Stop (resumable later)”	Stays in the list as “Stopped”	Open it and resume
Clear a finished job out of the list	“Archive (remove from the list)”	Leaves the list with the conversation kept	Restore it from the archive
Start just the conversation over in the same place	“Recreate (current conversation goes to the archive)”	Archives the current conversation and starts a new one	The old conversation can be restored from the archive
Remove a throwaway shell / SSM	“Delete”	Moves to the trash and leaves the list	Restore it from the cleanup trash

Archiving and deleting are covered in Clear away finished sessions.

Stop a session

1. Choose “Stop (resumable later)” in the session row’s ⋯ menu
2. Press “Stop” in the “Stop session” confirmation

Stopping also ends the turn that is running. To stop once the turn has ended, use Stop when it is done.

Note

A Terminal (CLI) codex or opencode session runs its turn in a server outside the terminal. Stopping interrupts the turn in that server and drops the instructions queued behind it. This gives up after a few seconds, so with a slow server the turn may still run to the end after the terminal closes.

Stop every session in one working copy

1. Right-click a repository or worktree row and choose “Stop the sessions below”
2. The sessions running in that working copy, and in the copies the left pane nests under it, are listed one per line
3. Press “Stop (N)”

Each line says how it will stop.

Shown	Meaning
stop now	Stops right away
after the turn	It is mid-reply, so it stops when the turn ends. Nothing half-written is lost

• To cut a mid-reply session off right away, tick “Stop the running sessions right away too (N)”
• A session waiting on a question, a limit or an expired sign-in has no turn to wait for, so it always stops right away
• shell / ssm rows and rows kept awake start unticked. Tick them yourself to stop them

Resume a session

1. Click a stopped row in the list. The history opens read-only first
2. In the chat, press “Resume and continue”. “Resume” in the ⋯ menu also resumes it

• Ctrl+click (or middle-click) opens it in a new pane and keeps your current view
• A resumed session continues with the execution method it was saved with (Managed / Terminal (CLI))
• If you switched the model, effort or plan mode inside the terminal, it resumes on the last settings the conversation recorded, not the ones it was launched with. Except for claude, codex and kiro, a model switch with no message sent after it is not recorded, so the session resumes on its launch model
• The session list stays visible while the workspace is stopped. You cannot operate on it, but you can see what was there, even from a phone

Leave a session stopped

A session left stopped for 7 days moves to the archive on its own. It is moved, not deleted. The conversation stays and you can restore it from the archive at any time.

• Change the period in ⚙ Settings → “Agents” under “Archive stopped sessions after” (you can also choose “Off”)
• Shortening it moves the sessions already past the new period to the archive on the next list refresh
• A session locked against deletion stays in the list

When it goes wrong

“Folder missing — can’t resume” and the row will not open

The working folder the session was launched in is gone. This usually follows deleting a working copy together with its worktree. A shell resumes in your home when its folder is missing. Every other kind cannot resume until the folder is recreated.

A deleted worktree can be recreated at its original path.

1. Open the “Recreate working copy” dialog in one of two ways:
   • “Recreate working copy (worktree)…” in the session’s ⋯ menu
   • “Recreate working copy” on the heading of the deleted worktree’s folder in the archive list
2. Choose where the commits come from and press “Recreate”
3. In “Restore sessions”, choose the sessions to bring back and press “Restore selected”

The sources are listed in this order, as far as they are found. If none is left, a new branch of the same name is started off the parent.

Source	What comes back
As it was when deleted	The commit at the delete, and the uncommitted changes too when the trash recorded them
Local branch / Remote branch	The head of that branch
Commit recorded when the branch was deleted	The commit recorded when the branch was deleted from the Console
Head commit of merged PR	The branch’s head as a merge commit still names it

• If another working copy has that branch checked out, a new branch is started at the same commit
• A folder of the same name may have been used by earlier work. Sessions that started on a different branch show “started on …”; check them against their dates before restoring
• Ignored files (node_modules, .env and so on) never come back, and nothing can be recreated once the parent working copy is gone
• Right-click a working copy’s row and choose “Archived sessions of this working copy” to open the archive for that folder only

The row shows a warning icon and a branch name

The session’s working copy has switched to a different branch from the one it was launched on. The working tree the running agent sees may have been swapped out, and its edits and diffs may no longer line up.

If this does not ring a bell, check whether an unintended branch switch has happened. For parallel work, give each session its own worktree and this does not happen.

A claude session will not resume because its conversation log was deleted

See Find a missing session or one that will not resume.

Related

• Stop when done, or keep a session awake
• Clear away finished sessions
• Stop a session that spends too much with a budget
• Hand off to another session or agent