You were working on a task, closed the laptop, and opened a new terminal in the morning. You do not have to explain everything to Claude again: conversations are saved, and you can go back to them.
claude --continue — the most recent conversation
In the project root, type:
claude --continue
or, shorter:
claude -c
Claude Code opens the most recent conversation in this folder — with the whole history. The word “folder” matters: conversations are tied to the directory you started Claude in. Start it from another folder and you get that folder’s most recent conversation, not the one you wanted.
/resume — pick any of them
If the most recent conversation is not the right one, type this inside a session:
/resume
A list of past conversations opens — choose one with the arrow keys. This is also how you get back to a conversation you closed with /clear: clearing does not delete the old conversation, it just starts a new one.
The pro rhythm
Put together with the previous lessons, you get a simple cycle:
- Started a task — new session.
- The window fills up, same task —
/compact. - Task done —
/clear. - Need to go back to earlier work —
claude --continueor/resume.
Quick check
You ran claude --continue, but the wrong conversation opened. Why could that be?
Careful
A resumed conversation remembers what was said, but it does not control the files. If you have rolled something back or changed it by hand since then, the conversation may contain an edit that was already undone. Before continuing, look at git status and, if needed, tell Claude briefly what changed.
Practice in the terminal