Session Management

Every conversation in ByteMind exists within a session. Sessions persist automatically to disk — interrupt and resume anytime without losing context.

How Sessions Work

• Each session has a unique ID (e.g., abc123def)
• Session data is stored under ByteMind's home directory, which defaults to .bytemind/ in your user home directory
• When you start bytemind, it creates a new session or lets you resume an existing one
• Message history is preserved, giving the agent accumulated context for follow-up tasks; very long sessions automatically trigger context compaction to stay within model window limits

Opening the Session Picker

/session

This opens an interactive picker modal:

Recent Sessions
Page 1/3 · Total 22
Up/Down move, Left/Right page, Enter resume, Delete remove, Esc close

> abc123def  2026-05-11 14:22  raw:18
   /d/code/my-project
   Refactoring auth module

  def456ghi  2026-05-10 09:15  raw:5
   /d/code/my-project
   Fix login 500 error

Keyboard controls:

Key	Action
↑ ↓ or k j	Move cursor up/down
← →	Previous/next page (8 per page, max 10 pages)
Enter	Switch to selected session (resume context)
Delete	Remove the selected session
Esc	Close picker, stay in current session

There is no separate /sessions or /resume command — viewing, resuming, and deleting sessions are all done within the /session picker.

Starting a New Session

/new

Creates a new session in the current workspace. Previous sessions remain saved and can be resumed anytime via the /session picker.

Practical Scenarios

Multi-day refactoring

Work on part of a large task each day, then resume where you left off:

/session → select yesterday's session → Enter

Parallel workflows

Use /new to create separate sessions for different feature branches, keeping context focused. Each session persists independently.

Clean up old sessions

/session → navigate to unused sessions → Delete

Storage Location

Session files are stored under ByteMind's home directory, which defaults to .bytemind/ in your user home. Override with the BYTEMIND_HOME environment variable.

See Also

• Interactive Mode (Build) — session usage in conversations
• Environment Variables — BYTEMIND_HOME override
• CLI Commands — full command reference