Claude Code CLI Flags

--resume: Resume Specific Conversations

The --resume flag (short form: -r) lets you jump back into any previous Claude Code session — by name, by ID, or by browsing an interactive picker. While --continue always grabs your most recent session, --resume gives you precision control over which conversation to return to.

How It Works

# Open the interactive session picker
claude --resume

# Open the picker with a search term already filled in
claude --resume auth

# Resume a named session directly
claude --resume auth-refactor

# Resume by session ID
claude -r "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

A name resolves across the current repository and its worktrees. An exact match resumes straight away; a name that matches several sessions opens the picker with the name pre-filled as a search. Sessions you never named get an AI-generated title from your first prompt, and that title works as a resume handle too.

A session ID works from any directory: Claude Code looks in the current project and its worktrees first, then in every other project on this machine. You can also pass the absolute path to a session's .jsonl transcript file in place of an ID.

The Session Picker

When you run claude --resume with no argument, you get the interactive picker (the same one /resume opens inside a session):

Key	Action
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate sessions
`→` / `←`	Expand/collapse grouped sessions
`Enter`	Resume the highlighted session
`Space`	Preview the session's content
`Ctrl+R`	Rename the highlighted session
`/` or just start typing	Search and filter sessions
`Ctrl+A`	Toggle between this repository and all projects on the machine
`Ctrl+W`	Toggle between this worktree and all worktrees of the repository
`Ctrl+B`	Filter to sessions from the current git branch
`Esc`	Leave search, or exit the picker

Each row shows the session's name or generated title, time since last activity, git branch and file size. Search also accepts a pasted GitHub, GitLab or Bitbucket pull request URL, and finds the session that created it.

The picker leaves out sessions created with claude -p or the Agent SDK. Those still resume when you pass their session ID directly.

--resume vs --continue

	`--continue` / `-c`	`--resume` / `-r`
Scope	Most recent session in this directory	Any session on the machine
Selection	Automatic	By name, ID, transcript path, or picker
Use case	"Pick up where I left off"	"Find that session from Tuesday"

Things Worth Knowing

Running background sessions: if the session you pick is still running in the background, --resume opens that running session in your terminal rather than loading a second copy. A prompt on the command line, as in claude --resume my-task "check the tests too", is sent to it as its next turn first.
Forking: add --fork-session to resume a copy under a new session ID, leaving the original untouched.
Flags aren't remembered: if the session was launched with --add-dir, --mcp-config, --settings or --plugin-dir, pass them again when you resume.
Scripts: claude -p --resume <id> "prompt" sends a follow-up to a specific session non-interactively and prints the answer.

Pro tip: name sessions when you start them — claude -n auth-refactor — rather than hunting for them later. The name shows in the prompt bar and the picker, and claude --resume auth-refactor takes you straight back.

Try It Now

Name your current session so you can find it later:
```
/rename my-learning-session
```
Exit Claude Code with Ctrl+C or /exit
Browse your sessions with the interactive picker:
```
claude --resume
```
Use the arrow keys to browse, press Space to preview, try Ctrl+A to see every project, then Enter to resume.
Or jump straight back by name:
```
claude --resume my-learning-session
```

Bonus: resume non-interactively from a script:

claude --resume my-learning-session -p "What's the status?"

--continue/-c — Quick resume of the most recent session
--from-pr — Open the picker filtered to sessions linked to a pull request
Named sessions — Use /rename or claude -n to name sessions for easy recall
/resume — Switch sessions from within an active session
/branch — Copy the conversation mid-session to try a different approach
claude agents — See every running, waiting or finished background session in one list

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