[FEATURE] Allow for limited memory across sessions
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)
Problem Statement
In the regular web based Claude, conversations are persisted. You can close the browser and come back in. Open the conversation and go.
With Claude Code, there is no concept of a persisted conversation. Everything is a session. The problem with this is that VS Code can be a little volatile. ESPECIALLY with Maui development. I'm constantly having to reload my solution. That, of course, loses whatever context I had going with Claude Code. I have to bring it back up to speed, show it files, etc.
Proposed Solution
I get that it could be difficult to persist conversations in the same way that you do with online Claude, but it would be amazing if there could be a memory cache that can survive sessions. It could be limited in size (rolling) so that it doesn't remember a ton of stuff. It could also be user deletable. I tell it to reset, and it resets.
This would allow users to pick up where they left off. Or, if they want to talk about something new, they could ask Claude Code to start a new conversation. Poof. Everything is gone.
Alternative Solutions
Of course, you can constantly update Claude.md with what you are working on, but that isn't very user friendly. I could also have it maintain a temporary file that I could have it read when I restart, but that also requires me to remember to do it. If I'm troubleshooting an issue, I'm going to forget to do that.
Basically, the only alternatives I've thought about are manual on my part.
Priority
High - Significant impact on productivity
Feature Category
Other
Use Case Example
I would use this feature every single day.
I'm working with Claude Code on an issue. I type something wrong in the XAML editor and it crashes (happens multiple times per day). I have to reload the solution to make it not be crazy anymore. And... Claude Code remembers nothing that happened.
Additional Context
Basically, we're talking about emulating what online Claude does. To a limited degree, anyways.
7 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code
Hey,
Great suggestion! I've definitely felt this pain too, especially like you said, when VS Code decides to reload after a XAML change or some other hiccup. Losing all that context you just built up with Claude is a major productivity killer.
The good news is that the Claude Code team has already implemented a feature that does almost exactly what you're describing! It's not a "cache" in the way you might think, but it does persist your entire conversation history locally, so you can pick up right where you left off.
There are two main commands for this:
claude --continue(or-c)This is the one you'll probably use most often. It automatically loads the most recent conversation you were having in that project directory. So, if VS Code crashes or you have to reload, you can just pop open the terminal and run
claude -cto get right back into your session with the full context intact.claude --resumeThis one is for when you want to pick from a list of all your previous conversations in that directory. When you run it, it gives you an interactive selector showing the start time and initial prompt for each session, so you can jump back to a task you were working on yesterday or last week.
The official docs have a great section on this under "Common Workflows": Resume previous conversations.
It explains:
So, for your use case:
claude --continuein the terminal.claudelike normal. It will start a new session. If you're already in a session and want to start over, the/clearcommand will wipe the current context.It was a game-changer for me once I started using these flags. Hope this helps you out
@mmiller-d8, it is done, it is the
/resumecommand to select one of old sessions.Well, that's great to know. Kind of seems like Claude Code should have been able to tell me that. I mentioned this issue in a conversation and it had no idea it could do that. It says it does not persist conversations and can't access them across sessions.
Anyways, thanks for the info. I'll give that a try.
@coygeek @abicorios
@mmiller-d8, it is also important, Claude Code is not one mind. These are two parts. Claude model is one. And Claude Code command line tool is another one, like on the body for mind. And Claude model don't know all details about Claude Code. So you can ask him 'find by internet' or also git clone this
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-coderepostitory and asc Claude Code to research the code of the Claude Code.@abicorios I totally get your point, but I would argue that Claude Code should know its own commands. It shouldn't tell me that there is no persisted conversation and that there is no way to remember across sessions. I just tried /resume and it worked. Claude Code was surprised that there was a way to do that.
I didn't go digging in the docs because it was pretty clear that I couldn't do it. I trusted it knew about itself. Now I know.
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