Claude Code sessions

Reproducible practice

Branch a resumable investigation without altering the original session

Name a bounded investigation, resume it deliberately, and fork before trying a competing hypothesis.

Prerequisites

• A trusted disposable repository with no sensitive transcript content.
• A clean working tree or a recorded diff baseline.
• An explicit session name that contains no customer or secret data.

Steps

1. Record repository state

   Session branching does not isolate files; establish the shared filesystem baseline first.

   git status --short
   git rev-parse --show-toplevel

2. Start and name the investigation

   Start interactively with a non-sensitive name and stop before making changes if the wrong project opens.

   claude --name session-lab

3. Resume by explicit name

   Avoid `--continue` when multiple projects or sessions could make 'most recent' ambiguous.

   claude --resume session-lab

4. Fork before a competing approach

   Create a new session ID while preserving the original transcript; remember both sessions still share repository files.

   claude --resume session-lab --fork-session

Expected result

The original session remains resumable, the fork appears separately, and filesystem changes are attributed through the shared git baseline.

Validation

• Use the session picker to confirm the explicit name and separate fork.
• Compare `git status --short` after each branch of work.
• Export or share a transcript only after reviewing it for secrets and private paths.

Failure handling

Cleanup or rollback

• Exit the fork and restore only its verified file changes through normal version-control review.
• Keep or remove transcripts according to organizational retention policy, not by broad filesystem deletion.

Boundaries and when not to use it

• Forking conversation context does not create a git branch or isolated worktree.
• Transcripts may contain code, paths, prompts, and tool output; treat them as sensitive project data.