Session History - OpenSRE Documentation

Commands at a glance

Command	What it does
`/sessions`	List recent REPL sessions (name, duration, turns)
`/resume <id>`	Restore a past session so you can continue asking questions
`/resume <id>:<entry>`	Restore a specific branch point by entry ID prefix
`/compact`	Summarize older context into a replayable compaction entry
`/new`	Start a fresh session file while keeping the current conversation context

Browsing past sessions — `/sessions`

/sessions

  Recent sessions

   #  Session ID  Name                           Started            Duration  Turns
   ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   1  3f8a1c2d    (current)                      2024-01-15 10:00   42m       8
   2  9b2e4f7a    why is CPU spiking on prod-api  2024-01-14 14:30   1h 5m    15
   3  c1d3e8f2    who restarted checkout-api      2024-01-13 09:10   12m       3

Up to 20 sessions are shown, newest first. The current session updates its elapsed time live. Turns is the total turn count.

Resuming a past session — `/resume`

Use /resume with the first characters of the session ID from /sessions:

/resume 9b2e4f7a

From outside the REPL, pass the same ID or name substring to the CLI launcher (for example opensre --resume 9b2e4f7a, or o --resume OOM when o is your shell alias):

opensre --resume <uuid>

In a TTY, bare /resume opens an interactive picker of recent sessions. New turns after a resume append to that same session file — /resume does not create a duplicate entry in /sessions. To resume a specific branch point, append an entry ID prefix after the session ID:

/resume 9b2e4f7a:abc123

When the branch contains a compaction entry, replay inserts the saved summary before the kept messages so the assistant has the compacted context. OpenSRE restores the conversation, shows the past exchanges, then lets you continue:

resumed session 9b2e4f7a · why is CPU spiking on prod-api (14 messages)
─── conversation history ────────────────────────────────────
❯ why is CPU spiking on prod-api?
● assistant
The root cause is a connection pool leak in the orders service...
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

What gets restored:

	Restored by `/resume`
Full conversation context (what you asked, what the assistant said)	Yes
Infra context (service name, cluster, region learned mid-session)	Yes
Trust mode, reasoning effort	No — these are per-session preferences

You can also search by name instead of ID:

/resume redis        # resumes the session whose name contains "redis"
/resume cpu spike    # matches by name substring

If the prefix matches more than one session, OpenSRE asks you to be more specific.

When you exit

When you leave the REPL, OpenSRE prints your session ID so you can resume later:

Exit path	Behavior
`/exit` or `/quit`	Prints `Resume this session with:`, `/resume <session-id>`, and `opensre --resume <session-id>`, then goodbye
Ctrl+C twice within 2 seconds	Same resume hint, then exits
Ctrl+D (EOF)	Same resume hint when no dispatch is running

Example:

Resume this session with:
/resume 3f8a1c2d-…
opensre --resume 3f8a1c2d-…
Goodbye!

Copy the /resume … or opensre --resume … line from the terminal, or find the session later with /sessions.

Starting fresh with context — `/new`

/new closes the current session and opens a new one, but carries the conversation forward:

/new

new session started — conversation context carried forward.
  14 messages in context · type to continue

Use /new after a long session to keep /sessions tidy without losing your place in the conversation.

Compacting long sessions — `/compact`

/compact summarizes older conversation context, keeps the recent turns, and writes a durable compaction entry into the session file:

/compact

OpenSRE also compacts automatically before a shell turn when the replayed branch context grows past the runtime threshold. The compaction entry stores the summary, the first kept entry ID, and before/after size estimates so future /resume calls can replay the compacted branch. /new vs /clear:

Command	What it does
`/clear`	Clears the terminal screen only — session and context unchanged
`/new`	Opens a new session file; conversation context carried forward

What OpenSRE saves

Each session records:

When it started and ended, and how long it ran
Every message you sent and every response from the assistant
Tool calls, tool updates, tool results, model/tool changes, labels, custom messages, and compaction summaries
Infra context discovered while working (service names, cluster names, regions)
Turn counts

Sessions are stored as files under ~/.opensre/sessions/. Each file is plain text and human-readable.

Inspecting a turn’s decisions

Local session traces record the model’s original closing, the reason a stop was accepted or rejected, the plan and pending questions, and the displayed and saved answers separately. These diagnostic records stay out of resumed conversation context. Known credential patterns are redacted; ordinary conversation text is retained. Run /sessions to find the session ID, then use jq in your terminal. Replace 3f8a1c2d with the ID prefix shown for your session:

jq 'select(.type == "trace_span" and .span_kind == "decision")' \
  ~/.opensre/sessions/3f8a1c2d*.jsonl

Look for goal_review and conclusion to understand stopping, agent_finished for the original closing, response_composition for display filtering, and response_displayed / assistant_persisted for the two outputs. Rejected closing attempts appear as model_conclusion records. The records include the prompt turn ID when available; assistant_persisted.message_id identifies the saved message. These records are added on new runs; older traces cannot recover text that was never recorded.

Privacy and what is not saved

Secrets or credentials — known token shapes are redacted from the prompt log by default (set OPENSRE_PROMPT_LOG_REDACT=0 to store raw text instead)
Token usage — tracked in ~/.opensre/prompt_log.jsonl when prompt logging is enabled

See Interactive Shell Privacy for redaction controls.

Interactive Shell Privacy — command history, prompt/response logging, and redaction settings
Environment variables — full prompt/response logging configuration

​Commands at a glance

​Browsing past sessions — /sessions

​Resuming a past session — /resume

​When you exit

​Starting fresh with context — /new

​Compacting long sessions — /compact

​What OpenSRE saves

​Inspecting a turn’s decisions

​Privacy and what is not saved

​Related