Sessions, search and worktrees

Find and resume a conversation

The sidebar collects local coding sessions by project. Claude Code history comes from the CLI’s project transcripts, so supported terminal conversations can appear alongside chats started in Helios. Other providers keep their own authoritative history and Helios integration data.

Click a session to restore its transcript and controls. Press Ctrl+F to search transcripts, or use the sidebar filter to narrow the list to a project, this machine or temporary work. Ctrl+R reloads sessions from disk.

Use a row’s context menu to rename a conversation. Names can also come from the title-generation backend; the default uses the first message without calling a model.

The context menu also provides supported copy and deletion actions. Read a deletion confirmation carefully and preserve any history you need before removing a session.

Read session status

Status dots distinguish a working session, a finished turn, an error, a session that appears stuck and a session that needs your input. A finished turn does not necessarily mean its provider process has exited or that the whole project objective is complete.

When a background conversation needs an answer or approval, its row signals that it needs you. Switch to that session to see the dialog. Notifications depend on the app’s notification setting and desktop permissions.

Start another task

Ctrl+N creates a chat using the default project choice. Ctrl+Shift+N asks for its folder first. Check the model and execution controls before sending the first message.

Two chats pointed at the same directory can edit the same files. A separate conversation does not create filesystem isolation.

Use a Git worktree for an experiment

1. Open a chat in the repository you want to work on.
2. Choose Chat in a Worktree from the new-chat menu.
3. Helios creates a separate working directory and a branch from the repository’s current HEAD, then opens the new conversation there.
4. Review and commit in that worktree. Push and open a pull or merge request when ready.

Helios-managed worktrees live under the app’s state directory, normally ~/.helios/worktrees/. The Changes pane offers removal for managed worktrees and refuses dirty ones. Committing a worktree does not merge its branch into another checkout.

Fork a conversation

In Claude chats, a saved user message’s ⋮ menu offers Fork conversation from here. It copies the conversation before that message into a new session and puts the message in the composer for editing. The original conversation remains available.

Codex and Kimi expose a fork from the conversation’s current end through supported agent commands. These are different cut points. The command palette reflects the selected provider; a listed but unavailable command cannot be run.

Forking conversation history and restoring project files are separate operations. Use checkpoints when you need to inspect or restore a file snapshot.

Temporary and older sessions

Sessions in /tmp or a folder whose path component begins with _tmp_ appear under Temporary. Check that filter if a development session seems missing.

Helios can move older local Claude transcripts into its session archive. This moves history; it does not erase it. Claude’s own resume command cannot see a transcript after it moves out of the CLI’s project directory. See archive recovery before moving files back.

Other-machine history is an optional session-pool integration and is read-only. It requires both configuration and the setting to show other machines; it is not a remote execution service.