Resuming a Session

/resume brings back the context of an earlier session so you can carry on without explaining it again. It reads checkpoint files, your project register and, when you have it, PRIMA Memory. What you type after the command decides where it looks first.

Choose How to Resume

You type	Use it when	Where Claude looks
/resume P012	You know the project	The most recent session for that project
/resume P012 15:40	You know the project and the time of a save	The checkpoint section for that project saved at that time
/resume 15:40	You have a time from /save	The checkpoint saved at that time today
/resume newsletter	You remember a word but not the project	Sessions that mention the word
/resume	You are not sure what to resume	A list of your recent sessions to choose from

The project route is the quickest. It makes one lookup, shows one result and does not ask you to choose.

What You See

Claude presents the session in one block and ends with “Ready to continue.” It does not ask what to pick up next.

**Resuming P012 — Spring Workshop**

**Last session:** 2026-10-13
Drafted the session plan and agreed the running order for the morning.

**Stopped at:** next, write handouts for the afternoon exercises
**Next:** write the first handout

Ready to continue.

Where the Context Comes From

By Project

With PRIMA Memory, Claude searches your history for the project ID, first for today, then yesterday, then this week, and takes the newest result. The latest checkpoint file for the project supplies the resumption context, or the one matching the time you gave. When no checkpoint exists, Claude reads a summary of that session from PRIMA Memory. The project’s stoppedAt and lastAction notes come from your register.

By Time

Claude looks for a checkpoint file named with today’s date and that time, the kind /save writes. Without one, it matches the time against PRIMA Memory’s recent sessions, or against the session history in your register.

By Search Term

With PRIMA Memory, Claude searches this week’s sessions for the word, then this month’s. One match loads at once. With several, Claude shows up to five and asks which to load.

With No Argument

Claude lists your last ten sessions from PRIMA Memory, or from the session history in your register, and asks which one you want. When you choose, it reads the session’s checkpoint if there is one, or a summary of the session.

Without PRIMA Memory

Every route works without PRIMA Memory. Claude says once that PRIMA Memory gives fuller recall, then carries on with what is on disk.

• By project: the latest checkpoint file for the project, and the stoppedAt and lastAction notes from your register. With no checkpoint, Claude reads the newest session entry recorded on the project, which /save writes.
• By time: the checkpoint file for that time, or the session history in your register.
• By search term: a text search of your checkpoint files and the session history in your register, newest first.
• No argument: the session history in your register.

The fallback only finds what was written to checkpoints and your register. PRIMA Memory searches the full record of each session. See Resuming a Previous Session in the PRIMA Memory manual.

Checkpoint Files

The context checkpoint rule makes Claude write a checkpoint silently about every 20 tool calls, and always just before /night or /sync. Checkpoints go to ~/Documents/Agent Outputs/<folder>/YYYY-MM-DD-session-checkpoint.md, one file per folder per day. The folder is the project ID when Claude can match the working folder to a project, and the workspace folder name otherwise. /resume with a project ID looks only in that project’s folder. Each checkpoint adds a section with a summary, progress, decisions, files changed, unfinished work and the next action.

The AI Business OS /save command writes its own checkpoint, named with the time, such as 2026-10-14-1540-session-checkpoint.md. It also gives you the /resume line to use in your next session. Use /save when you want a deliberate save point, because the automatic checkpoints add to it and do not replace it.

Related Pages

• Rules It Installs describes the context checkpoint rule in full.
• /save in AI Business OS explains the mid-session save.
• /resume in AI Business OS describes the base version this command replaces.