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Claude Code persists conversation history to disk so you can resume where you left off. Session management is handled through CLI flags on the main claude command and the /resume slash command inside an interactive session.

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Resuming sessions

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Continue the last session

Pick up exactly where you left off in the current directory: 
claude -c
claude --continue

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Resume by session ID

Pass a specific session UUID to jump directly into that conversation: 
claude --resume 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
claude -r 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

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Open the interactive picker

Omit the ID to browse past sessions in an interactive list, with optional search: 
claude --resume
claude --resume "my feature branch"
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-r, --resume [session-id-or-search]
string | boolean
Resume a conversation. Provide a session ID to resume directly, or a search term to pre-filter the interactive picker, or omit the value entirely to open the picker with no filter.
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-c, --continue
boolean
Continue the most recent conversation in the current directory. Equivalent to --resume with the ID of the last session.
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--fork-session
boolean
When resuming, create a new session ID instead of reusing the original. Use together with --resume or --continue to branch off a copy of the conversation.
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--no-session-persistence
boolean
Disable session persistence for this run — the session will not be saved to disk and cannot be resumed. Only works with --print.
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--session-id <uuid>
string
Use a specific UUID for the new session. Must be a valid UUID and must not already exist. When used with --resume or --continue, --fork-session must also be specified.
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-n, --name <name>
string
Set a display name for this session. The name is shown in the /resume picker and in the terminal title.

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The /resume slash command

Inside an interactive session, run /resume (aliased as /continue) to open the session picker without leaving the CLI: 
/resume
/resume my-feature
/continue

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Clearing the current session

The /clear slash command (aliased as /reset and /new) clears the current conversation history and frees up context, starting a fresh turn within the same process: 
/clear
/reset
/new

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Session storage

Sessions are stored as JSONL transcript files under: 
~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/
Each file is named with the session UUID. The cleanupPeriodDays setting (default: 30) controls how long transcripts are retained before being deleted at startup.
~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "cleanupPeriodDays": 60
}
Set cleanupPeriodDays to 0 to disable session persistence entirely.
Use --name to give sessions a human-readable label so they are easier to find in the /resume picker later.
claude --name "oauth-refactor" -c

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