resume (claude -r) not supported?

[Awannaphasch2016]

so I dig around. (haven't look at the code throughly), but I don't see any functionality or even a word mention "resume".

I tend to close Emacs alot, so when I close Emacs. These sessions are lost with Emacs session.

if it's not already exist, is there a plan for adding this feature? I don't mind creating a pr.

[Awannaphasch2016]

  You could try modifying the command to include a session ID, but this won't work well because:

  (setq agent-shell-anthropic-claude-command
        '("claude-code-acp" "--session-id" "your-uuid-here"))

  Problem: You'd need to manually update this for each session, and agent-shell will still try to send session/new requests, which may conflict.

  ---
  What Would Be Needed to Implement This Feature

  To properly support session restoration in agent-shell, these changes would be needed:

  1. Session Persistence Layer

  ;; Save sessions to disk
  (defcustom agent-shell-session-history-file
    (expand-file-name "agent-shell-sessions.el" user-emacs-directory)
    "File to store agent-shell session history."
    :type 'file
    :group 'agent-shell)

  ;; Session metadata structure
  (defstruct agent-shell-session
    id                    ; UUID
    cwd                   ; Working directory
    agent-type            ; "claude-code", "gemini", etc.
    created-at            ; Timestamp
    last-activity         ; Timestamp
    description           ; User-provided or auto-generated
    )

  2. Modify Command Invocation

  ;; In agent-shell-anthropic.el
  (defun agent-shell-anthropic-make-claude-client (buffer &optional session-id)
    (let* ((command-params (if session-id
                              (list "--session-id" session-id)
                            '()))
           (full-command (append agent-shell-anthropic-claude-command
                                command-params)))
      (agent-shell--make-acp-client
       :command (car full-command)
       :command-params (cdr full-command)
       ...)))

  3. Skip session/new for Resumed Sessions

  ;; In agent-shell.el
  (cl-defun agent-shell--initiate-session (&key shell on-session-init resume-session-id)
    (if resume-session-id
        ;; Don't send session/new, just update state with existing ID
        (progn
          (map-put! agent-shell--state
                    :session (list (cons :id resume-session-id)))
          (when on-session-init
            (funcall on-session-init shell)))
      ;; Normal path: create new session
      (acp-send-request
       :request (acp-make-session-new-request ...)
       ...)))

  4. Interactive Commands

  (defun agent-shell-resume-session ()
    "Resume a previous agent-shell session."
    (interactive)
    (let* ((sessions (agent-shell--load-session-history))
           (session (completing-read "Resume session: " 
                                    (mapcar #'agent-shell--format-session sessions)))
           (session-id (agent-shell-session-id session)))
      (agent-shell-start :config (agent-shell-select-config)
                        :resume-session-id session-id)))

  (defun agent-shell-save-current-session ()
    "Save current session to history."
    (interactive)
    (let* ((session-id (map-nested-elt agent-shell--state '(:session :id)))
           (session (make-agent-shell-session
                     :id session-id
                     :cwd (agent-shell-cwd)
                     :agent-type "claude-code"
                     :created-at (current-time)
                     :last-activity (current-time))))
      (agent-shell--save-session session)))

  ---
  Comparison: agent-shell vs claude CLI

  | Feature                      | claude CLI       | agent-shell            |
  |------------------------------|------------------|------------------------|
  | Resume session by ID         | ✅ claude -r <id> | ❌ Not supported        |
  | Continue recent session      | ✅ claude -c      | ❌ Not supported        |
  | Interactive session picker   | ✅ claude -r      | ❌ Not supported        |
  | Session persistence          | ✅ Automatic      | ❌ Memory-only          |
  | Multiple concurrent sessions | ✅ Via resume     | ✅ Via multiple buffers |
  | Session history              | ✅ Maintained     | ❌ Lost on buffer close |

  ---
  Relevant File Locations

  - Session creation: agent-shell.el:1614-1654
  - Session state: agent-shell.el:212-232
  - Command config: agent-shell-anthropic.el:73-79
  - Command invocation: agent-shell-anthropic.el:136-137
  - ACP protocol: acp.el:445-457

  ---
  Feature Request

  This would be a valuable feature to request from the agent-shell maintainer. The implementation would be straightforward since claude-code-acp already supports it via
  command-line flags.

I attached solution proposed by claude. It mentioned that " The implementation would be straightforward since claude-code-acp already supports it via command-line flags." so I will try that tomorrow. will report back.

[xenodium]

Thanks for filing a feature request. This feature is supported by ACP protocol, though at the moment neither Claude Code (AFAIK) nor agent-shell support it. Check out loading sessions in ACP https://agentclientprotocol.com/protocol/session-setup#loading-sessions Mind checking with https://github.com/zed-industries/claude-code-acp folks to see the status of this feature?

Btw, I recently added display of agent capabilities in 992ab2d So you can easily check by expanding the section in agent-shell

Once we have at least one agent implementing this, I can take on the work for agent-shell. Hope that makes sense.

[Awannaphasch2016]

Thx.

FYI, i know u looking for funding. I don't know if u know about prizeforge but they are trying to create prize pool matching for open source creator. Still small, but a new channel for u to potentially earn more.

[xenodium]

Ah thank you. It had some issues creating accounts with email addresses last I tried, but I'll give them another look.

[ileixe]

Maybe acp client is not yet supported: zed-industries/claude-code-acp#130?

[farra]

@xenodium I've created 2 PRs to add early support for resuming sessions:

• Add acp-make-session-resume-request for session/resume support acp.el#11
• Add session/resume support for resuming previous sessions #248

Note this just resumes. It doesn't reload (ie- the buffer LOOKS the same, but the agent has resumed the session).

I've only tested this with Claude Code, which, in full disclosure, did essentially all of the coding.

[xenodium]

@xenodium I've created 2 PRs to add early support for resuming sessions:

Thank you!

Note this just resumes. It doesn't reload (ie- the buffer LOOKS the same, but the agent has resumed the session)

This is likely fine for now.

I've only tested this with Claude Code, which, in full disclosure, did essentially all of the coding.

Thanks for the heads-up. Left some comments on the main PR.