Session Keeper is free Windows software that restores Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions in Windows Terminal after a crash or reboot, in the same windows, tab order, and screen positions.
Built using the VozSay speech-to-text app: we talked to our coding agents instead of typing.
If you run many AI coding sessions at once, a crash or reboot loses all of them: which conversation was in which tab, which tabs shared a window, and where each window sat on screen. Session Keeper records that layout in the background. After a crash, you pick which sessions to bring back, and it reopens each one in its own window, tab order and screen position, resuming its own conversation.
Work in progress. We use it every day, but if something goes wrong, please open an issue on this page.
- Windows 10 or 11 with Windows Terminal
- Python 3.12 with Tk (the standard python.org installer includes it)
- Claude Code and/or Codex CLI, run as tabs in Windows Terminal
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Download or clone this repository into a folder you will keep, for example
C:\Tools\session-keeper. The shortcuts point at this folder, so do not move it afterwards. -
Open PowerShell in that folder and run:
pip install psutil powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install_startup.ps1 # preview: shows what it will create powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install_startup.ps1 -Apply # creates the shortcuts
-Applycreates two shortcuts. It refuses to overwrite any that already exist.Shortcut Where What it does Session Keeper Your Startup folder Runs the background recorder at every login Session Keeper Your Desktop Opens the recovery screen -
Turn off Windows Terminal's own restore. It competes with Session Keeper and can open duplicate windows:
python configure_terminal.py # preview the one setting it changes python configure_terminal.py --apply # apply it (backs up your Terminal settings first)
It finds Windows Terminal (Store), Preview, Canary and unpackaged installs, and changes each settings file it finds.
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Log out and back in, or start the recorder now without waiting:
pythonw keeper_app.py watch
You do nothing. The recorder runs silently and saves a snapshot about every two minutes: every Windows Terminal window, its tabs, and the exact Claude or Codex conversation in each tab. Closing a tab is normal use, not a crash, and it never pops anything up while you work. Old snapshots are thinned once an hour: it keeps everything from the last 2 hours, one per hour for 7 days, one per day for 30 days, and always the newest one and the last one before every reboot.
- Double-click Session Keeper on your desktop. The recovery screen opens large on the monitor your mouse is on.
- Saved recovery draws your monitors side by side with each saved terminal window as a box at its real spot. Each box shows its tabs as buttons. Windows that were minimised are listed in a strip underneath.
- Tab colours: grey = already open (nothing opens twice), white with a red dot = missing, green = selected, ? = could not be identified and is never restored. Hover a tab for its full name.
- The green HOW TO USE bar at the top says where to start. To bring everything back, press Restore all N missing (bottom right) with nothing selected. To bring back only some, click those tabs (or a window's title bar for all its missing tabs, or Select all), then press Restart N selected. When every saved chat is already open, the bottom bar says there is nothing to restore.
- Press Preview to see exactly what would happen before you restart.
- A missing tab whose window is still open is added back into that same window. Otherwise each conversation reopens grouped into its original window at its original spot. If another window is sitting on that spot, it opens on top of it and the report says so ("opened on top of ...; drag it where you want"). Nothing is closed.
- Click any tab on the map to see its exact resume command at the top of the details panel, with how to use it, plus Copy command and Open it for me. The command is two plain lines: the first goes to the saved folder, and the second resumes that chat. For a chat that is already running the button is Open a second copy, with a warning that two copies of one chat can overwrite each other's history.
- If recovery stops or skips a tab, the panel on the right says which tab (and which window and monitor), what to do about it, and shows that tab's command with Copy command and Open it for me. If an open Claude or Codex tab cannot be identified, it names that tab and offers Restore anyway; nothing goes ahead past it until you click that.
- Copy command (green when tabs are selected) copies two plain lines per tab. The first line goes to the saved folder. The second line resumes the chat (
claude -r <session id>orcodex resume <id>). Nothing is copied when that folder is no longer there. Paste the lines into PowerShell if the automatic restore fails. - Saved layout picks an earlier moment: Latest, Before last reboot, 15 min ago, 1 hour ago, earlier today, or previous days.
Optional: automatic recovery. On the recovery screen, tick Restore saved chats at next Windows login. After the next reboot, the recovery screen opens by itself at login and restores everything after a ten-second countdown. Press Skip / STOP to cancel. It is off by default and only triggers after a real reboot, never when the recorder simply restarts.
- Never opens a conversation that is already running. The only way to get a second copy is the explicit Open a second copy button on that one tab.
- Never stops because a spot is covered: the restored window opens on top of whatever is there, and the report names it so you can drag it.
- Never guesses. A tab it cannot tie to one exact conversation is shown but not restored.
- If an open Claude or Codex tab cannot be identified, recovery stops so it cannot open a chat twice. Otherwise it names the tab and waits for you: type a message in it or close it and press Restart selected again, or click Restore anyway. The automatic login restore never goes past an unidentified tab on its own.
- Never closes a window on its own. If empty leftover terminals (bare prompts, no program running) sit on a saved spot, it asks once: Close empty ones and restart, Restart on top of them, or Cancel (the default). A terminal with a running chat, or one it cannot check, is never offered for closing. The automatic login restore never closes anything.
python keeper_app.py recover # open the recovery screen
python keeper_app.py snapshot # take one snapshot now
python keeper_app.py watch # run the background recorder
python -m unittest discover -v -p "test_keeper_*.py"Snapshots and settings are stored in the data folder next to the scripts. They contain your session IDs, folder paths and tab titles, so keep that folder private and never commit it.
Session Keeper runs on your PC only. It has no account, no telemetry, and never uploads your snapshots. Claude Code and Codex CLI themselves use their online services as usual once a conversation is resumed.
Session Keeper is an independent project. It is not made or endorsed by Anthropic or OpenAI.
- Claude and Codex command-line tabs only. The Codex desktop app is not covered.
- Split panes and which tab was active are not restored.
- If a monitor is disconnected, its windows move to the primary monitor, with a warning.
- Restoring reopens the conversation. It does not send a prompt or continue an interrupted task.
- A conversation where nothing was ever typed cannot be resumed.
- Conversations reopen in normal mode. Start options the original session used (for example permission flags) are not carried over.
- If Claude Code asks whether you trust a folder after a restore, answer it in that tab.
- PowerShell and Windows Terminal profiles only. Git Bash and WSL tabs are not covered, and the Copy command lines are for PowerShell.
- Session Keeper reads the session files Claude Code and Codex CLI save on your PC. Their format is not a public interface, so an update to either tool can break matching until Session Keeper is updated.
Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.
If you redistribute Session Keeper or build on it, keep the NOTICE file with your copy, as the license requires.
Session Keeper is made by StuntWorks. We build the tools we use every day and share the ones that might help others. We hope you find it useful.
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