Sessions & Workflows Intermediate

Fork a Session

Branch a conversation to explore alternatives without losing the main thread

Command

$ "color:#7C5CFC">claude -p "Try approach B instead" \
    "color:#d97757">--resume "$SESSION_ID" \
    "color:#d97757">--fork-session \
    "color:#d97757">--output-format json

Response

{
  "session_id": "b9395772-b2e3-4f46-b380-c81f9d766afe",
  "result": "FORKED_MESSAGE",
  "total_cost_usd": 0.01683075,
  "modelUsage": { "claude-opus-4-6": { "costUSD": 0.01683075 } }
}

Parsing Code

059669">">const forked = JSON.parse(execFileSync(059669059669">">'claude', [
  059669059669">">'-p', 059669059669">">'Try approach B',
  059669059669">">'--resume', originalSessionId,
  059669059669">">'--fork-session',
  059669059669">">'--output-format', 059669059669">">'json'
], opts));
// forked.session_id is NEW — original session unchanged

Gotchas

! Original session stays completely unchanged

! New session gets a full copy of the conversation history

Command

Response

Parsing Code

Gotchas

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