resume-from

Continue an AI coding session in another terminal agent, another profile, or another directory.

Give resume-from a session ID. It finds that session anywhere on disk, works out the agent, profile home, directory and branch, recreates a missing worktree when you confirm it, and either resumes the session in its own agent or imports it into the agent you are running.

resume-from dc601a22            # bare shell: print the native resume command
/resume-from dc601a22           # plugin: resume or import

resume-from converts saved sessions between Pi, Claude Code, and Codex.

Why this exists

Coding agents save conversations in different locations and vendor-specific formats. A Codex thread is not a Pi session. A Claude Code session cannot be opened directly by Codex, and a session recorded in a removed worktree is not in the current repository's list.

resume-from performs the conversion — or the native resume — before the target agent starts:

1. Find the session by ID or prefix across every known agent home, or by file path.
2. Read the agent's own format into a common conversation model.
3. Remove tool-result bodies and vendor-only state.
4. Fit the useful history to the target context budget.
5. Show a short summary and exactly what will be imported.
6. Same agent: print its own resume command and write nothing. Different agent: after confirmation, write a new native session.

The source session is never changed.

Use it when

• You know the session ID but not where it lives. Restore it from any directory, including a removed worktree.
• You want another model or provider. Start the target agent with the model you want, then restore.
• You want another harness. Keep the task context while changing terminal UI, tools, permissions, extensions, or agent behavior.
• You hit a rate or usage limit. Continue through another installed agent or account.
• You need another profile. Move between work, personal, or team homes.
• The current context is too large. Import a budgeted history into a fresh native session.

resume-from moves conversation context. It does not copy the repository, transfer uncommitted work, switch branches, or migrate a running process.

Supported transfers

Every source-to-target direction is supported, including transfers within the same agent:

What the command does depends on the situation:

What crosses the boundary

The importer keeps the parts needed to continue the task, subject to the target token budget:

• User prompts and agent replies.
• Compaction summaries.
• Tool activity as non-replayable plain text: tool name, recorded arguments, and a one-line outcome.
• Changed-file paths derived from mutating tool activity.
• Source provenance and a summary of anything dropped.

It excludes tool-result bodies, replayable tool-call structures, hidden reasoning, system prompts, environment blocks, API keys, telemetry, and vendor process state.

By default, the imported history may use up to 30% of the target context window. The first request, recent turns, summaries, and changed-file records are pinned. If pinned content alone does not fit, the import stops before writing.

Install in the destination agent

Install resume-from in the agent that will restore or receive the session.

Pi

See the Pi guide for supported Pi versions.

pi install npm:resume-from

Restart Pi, then run /resume-from.

Claude Code

claude plugin marketplace add alexei-led/resume-from
claude plugin install resume-from@alexei-led-resume-from

Update with claude plugin marketplace update alexei-led-resume-from, then claude plugin update resume-from@alexei-led-resume-from.

Codex

codex plugin marketplace add alexei-led/resume-from
codex plugin add resume-from@alexei-led-resume-from

In Codex, run the resume-from skill as $resume-from <id>. Claude Code and Codex run the matching published resume-from package through npx. The first use needs npm registry access.

Run the first restore

/resume-from dc601a22

An exact ID wins. A prefix of at least six characters selects the session when exactly one matches; several matches are listed as candidates. You can also pass a session file path. Row numbers come from the list in Claude Code, Codex, and the CLI; Pi uses its session picker.

The tool prints a short summary:

↻ claude-code dc601a22 · ~/.claude · 2026-11-03 10:04Z · fix the parser crash
  ~/.local/share/chezmoi · master
Resume in place: /resume dc601a22-64e3-410b-9321-bb8f86bdc5ad
Resume: cd /Users/alexei/.local/share/chezmoi && claude --resume dc601a22-64e3-410b-9321-bb8f86bdc5ad

Same agent: type the Resume in place: command in the running agent. It keeps that agent's launch settings and moves it to the session's directory. The Resume: line opens the session from another terminal; a bare shell prints only that line. Different agent: the tool shows an import preview and the exact Confirm: command to re-run. A missing recorded directory is shown first as one or more Recover: git commands, also gated by Confirm:. Pi uses its own interactive Import this session? (y/N) confirmation instead of a Confirm: line.

Options in the CLI, Claude Code, and Codex (Pi accepts a selector only):

• --to <dir> imports into another existing checkout of the same repository.
• --prompt <text> appends an initial prompt to the native resume command.
• --context prints the conversation an import into the current agent would keep, read-only.

--to and --context need an agent to act for: run them from the slash command or prompt, or from a shell as resume-from --target-agent <agent> -- <selector> --to <dir> (or --context). A bare resume-from <selector> --to <dir> is refused, because a bare shell only prints commands.

--agent and --home still narrow the repository list and the lookup, but they are not needed to find a session by ID.

Recovery summary

The imported session starts with a three-line marker, and the tool prints the same lines:

↻ Restored from claude-code dc601a22 (~/.claude) · 2026-11-03 10:04Z
  ~/.local/share/chezmoi · master
  4 turns kept · Dropped on import: 2 tool result bodies.

The channels differ by agent:

Recovery of a missing worktree

When the recorded directory is gone, the tool looks for a parent repository in the usual worktree layouts (<repo>.worktrees/<name>, <repo>/.worktrees/<name>, <repo>/.claude/worktrees/<name>). It shows the exact commands, then recreates the worktree only with the printed Confirm: token, in this order: the recorded local branch, origin/<branch>, the recorded commit, then the repository's HEAD with a warning. It never fetches, forces, deletes, or writes into an existing path.

Safety properties

• Read-only source: source homes and session files are not modified.
• Explicit write: an import writes nothing until you confirm; recovery runs only with its token.
• Add-only target: the importer creates target files; it does not replace or delete existing sessions.
• Native validation: the new file is validated and read back before it is reported as openable.
• No model call during transfer: conversion, filtering, budgeting, and writing are deterministic local operations.
• Visible provenance: the imported session states its source and what was dropped without putting that marker in model context.

Documentation

The user and maintainer documentation is organized in docs/.

Development

Development requires Node 24 LTS and pnpm 11.20.0.

pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm test
pnpm typecheck
pnpm lint

Run the command help after a build:

node dist/bin.js --help

License

MIT.