Session Workflows

Opening a session batch

cctabs sessions                          # check what's already running

cctabs new auth ~/Dev/myapp
cctabs new api ~/Dev/myapp
cctabs new infra ~/Dev/myapp

Each tab is named automatically and the Claude session name is synced to the tab title via --name.

Starting a session with an initial prompt

Use -p to send a prompt once Claude is ready, or -f to load it from a file:

cctabs new auth ~/Dev/myapp -p "implement JWT refresh token logic"
cctabs new api ~/Dev/myapp -f ~/prompts/api-task.txt

cctabs waits for Claude's prompt to appear before sending, so there's no race condition.

Working in an isolated branch (worktree)

Use -W to launch Claude with --worktree <name>, creating an isolated git worktree at .claude/worktrees/<name>:

cctabs new auth-experiment ~/Dev/myapp -W

This lets you run parallel sessions on the same repo without branches conflicting.

Resuming after a restart

cctabs sessions    # see which tabs are terminal (no claude running)

cctabs resume auth ~/Dev/myapp
cctabs resume api ~/Dev/myapp

resume runs claude --continue, picking up the last conversation.

Forking a session

Fork when you want to try an alternative approach without disrupting the original:

cctabs fork auth                   # creates "auth-fork"
cctabs fork auth -n auth-v2        # creates "auth-v2"

Under the hood: finds the most recent Claude session ID for that tab's directory, then opens a new tab with claude --resume <session-id> --fork-session.

Reading a session without switching to it

cctabs scrollback auth          # last 50 lines (by tab name)
cctabs scrollback auth 200      # last 200 lines
cctabs scrollback abc12345      # by block ID prefix

Sending input to a session

# By tab name (resolves to its terminal block automatically)
cctabs send auth "yes\n"           # approve a tool call
cctabs send auth "\n"              # press enter
cctabs send auth "/clear\n"        # send a slash command

# Send a full prompt from a file
cctabs send auth --file ~/prompts/task.txt

# Pipe via stdin
echo "please review this PR" | cctabs send auth

\n = Enter, \t = Tab.

Targeting a workspace

cctabs new api ~/Dev/myapp -w work

Opens the new tab in the Wave workspace named "work".

Cleanup

cctabs sessions                    # identify terminal tabs (no claude)
cctabs close old-feature           # close by name (prefix match)
cctabs close e5f6a7b8              # close by block ID prefix