Resume Claude Code sessions after a restart or reboot

An update pops up, you click "Restart", and only then do you remember. Claude Code was an hour into a hard task.

The conversation is not lost. Claude Code keeps it on disk. But now you have to dig up the right session ID in the right folder, and if you had three sessions open in three projects, good luck.

DevWorkspace Pro keeps a record of each unfinished AI session. After a restart, one click opens each one again.

In short

• DevWorkspace Pro records the tool, session ID, folder and arguments of each unfinished session. It does not save your prompt.
• After a restart, a 2 to resume style button lists the sessions. Click Resume to continue.
• Works with claude, codex and opencode.
• Set Claude Code's cleanupPeriodDays high enough, or old sessions disappear.
• Terminal tabs come back too, with their recent output.

How Claude Code resume works on its own

Claude Code stores each session as a file under ~/.claude/projects, one folder per project. You can continue a session in two ways:

• claude --continue opens the latest conversation in the current folder.
• claude --resume <id> opens one session by its ID. With no ID, it shows a picker.

For one session, that is fine. With several sessions across several projects, you have to remember which folder each one lived in and which conversation was which.

What DevWorkspace Pro saves

When you start a session with New AI session or Send to AI, DevWorkspace Pro saves:

• The tool (claude, codex or opencode)
• The session ID of the tool
• The project folder
• The arguments from AI CLI Tool Arguments
• The title of the task
• The start time

Your prompt is not on that list. It stays in the history of the AI tool. All the data stays on your computer, in the DevWorkspace Pro data folder.

The record is deleted when the AI tool stops (for example, you type /exit), when you click Close on the terminal window, or when you discard the session. If you quit the app while the tool is still open, the record stays.

How each tool resumes

With claude, the app knows the ID from the start, so the match is exact. With codex and opencode, the app looks for the session ID shortly after the start. If it does not find exactly one match, it does not save the session.

Pick up where you left off

After a restart:

1. Look at the status bar. A button with a history icon shows the count, for example 2 to resume. The project page and the dashboard card also show the count.
2. Click the button. A list shows the sessions, grouped by project. Each row shows the tool, the start time and the days before it expires. Hover over the title to see the folder and the arguments.
3. Click Resume next to a session. To open more than one, click Resume all or the Resume button of a project.

The AI tool opens in a terminal window, in the same folder, with the same conversation and the same arguments.

Sessions you no longer need? Click Discard or Discard all. The notification has an Undo button if you change your mind.

A resumed session uses the same arguments as the first session, for example --dangerously-skip-permissions. Check the arguments before you click Resume.

Settings

Open Preferences → General. Both features are on by default.

Match the Claude Code cleanup period

This one catches people out. Claude Code deletes its own session files after cleanupPeriodDays in ~/.claude/settings.json, and the default is 30 days. DevWorkspace Pro shows a session only when the tool still has it.

To resume sessions older than 30 days, set cleanupPeriodDays to the same value as Keep Unfinished AI Sessions (days) or higher:

{
  "cleanupPeriodDays": 90
}

Why a session might not show

DevWorkspace Pro shows a session only when all of these are true:

• The session started, or was last resumed, less than Keep Unfinished AI Sessions (days) ago.
• The project folder still exists.
• The AI tool still has the session. For claude, the file must be in ~/.claude/projects (or $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/projects).

The app deletes records that fail these checks.

What happens after a crash

You can still resume if the app crashes or the operating system stops it. DevWorkspace Pro saves each record when the session starts. It writes each file to a temporary file first and then replaces the old one, so a stop during a write does not damage the saved data.

One edge case: if the app stops a few seconds after the start, the AI tool may not have saved a session yet. The app then deletes that record at the next start.

Terminal tabs come back too

The Terminal tab of each project also survives a restart. You get its recent saved output, a line that marks the time of the save, and a new shell in the last folder you used. Old commands never run again. Saved output older than 60 days is not restored. See Session Resume for the details.

One caution: saved terminal text can contain secrets that a command printed. To keep no terminal text on disk, turn off Restore Terminal Tabs After Restart.

Why this matters

An unfinished task tends to stay on your mind. Psychology research found that unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts during other work, and that making a specific plan for the goal removed this effect (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2011).

A visible "2 to resume" button works as a small plan. The work is recorded, and you know where to continue.

References

• Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024192