🪨 why use many token when few token do trick — Claude Code skill that cuts 65% of tokens by talking like caveman
CLI session handoff for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor
`continues` scans local session data from supported AI coding tools, extracts the useful context, and rewrites it for the next tool you want to use. It supports interactive pickup, quick resume by tool, cross-tool handoff, inspection, and bulk export.
Builders who move between AI coding tools and want one session to continue in another.
You can keep debugging or refactoring in a different agent without re-explaining the work.
What it does
Cross-tool session handoff
Transfers a session from one supported tool to another, including conversation history, file changes, commands, and notes.
Interactive session picker
Shows recent sessions across tools and lets you choose where to continue.
Quick resume by tool
Lets you resume the latest or Nth recent session from a specific tool with a single command.
Readable handoff document
Builds a structured context file that tells the next agent what happened, what changed, and what is left to do.
Session inspection and export
Can inspect parsed data, write markdown handoffs, and dump sessions to markdown or JSON for backup or analysis.
Per-project config
Supports `.continues.yml` for preset, verbosity, and sampling defaults.
Multiple tool parsers
Reads native session formats from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, and other supported tools.
How to get it
- 1No install needed — just run npx continues. Or install globally
npm install -g continues # gives you `continues` and `cont`
- 2Skip the picker entirely — resume the Nth most recent session from a tool
continues claude # latest Claude session continues codex 3 # 3rd most recent Codex continues amp # latest Amp continues cline # latest Cline continues kiro # latest Kiro continues crush # latest Crush continues kimi # latest Kimi continues qwen-code # latest Qwen Code
- 3This is the main thing. Start in one tool, finish in another
# Hit the Claude rate limit? Hand it off to Gemini: continues resume abc123 --in gemini # Or pass flags through to the destination tool: continues resume abc123 --in codex --yolo --search --add-dir /tmp # Or print the exact handoff prompt without launching the target tool: continues resume abc123 --in codex --debug-prompt
- 4Run
continues list # table output continues list --source claude --json # JSON, filtered continues list --jsonl -n 10 # JSONL, last 10 continues scan # discovery stats continues scan --rebuild # force re-index
- 5See exactly what gets parsed and what ends up in the handoff
continues inspect abc123 # diagnostic view continues inspect abc123 --preset full --write-md handoff.md # dump full markdown continues inspect abc123 --truncate 50 # compact one-liner view
README
continues
You hit the rate limit mid-debug. 30 messages of context — file changes, architecture decisions, half-finished refactors — and now you either wait hours or start fresh in another tool.
continuesgrabs your session from whichever AI coding tool you were using and hands it off to another one. Conversation history, file changes, working state — all of it comes along.
npx continues
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6945f3a5-bd19-45ab-9702-6df8e165a734
Supported tools
16 AI coding agents, any-to-any handoff:
Claude Code · Codex · GitHub Copilot CLI · Gemini CLI · Cursor · Amp · Cline · Roo Code · Kilo Code · Kiro · Crush · OpenCode · Factory Droid · Antigravity · Kimi CLI · Qwen Code
That's 240 cross-tool handoff paths. Pick any source, pick any destination — it works.
Install
No install needed — just run npx continues. Or install globally:
npm install -g continues # gives you `continues` and `cont`
How it works
- Discovery — scans session directories for all 16 tools
- Parsing — reads each tool's native format (JSONL, JSON, SQLite, YAML — they're all different)
- Extraction — pulls recent messages, file changes, tool activity, AI reasoning
- Handoff — generates a structured context doc and injects it into the target tool
The handoff document is designed so the receiving agent immediately understands what you were doing, what files were touched, what commands ran, and what's left to do.
Usage
Interactive (default)
Just run continues. It finds all your sessions, lets you pick one, and asks where to continue:
┌ continues — pick up where you left off
│
│ Found 1842 sessions across 16 CLI tools
│ claude: 723 codex: 72 cursor: 68 copilot: 39 ...
│
◆ Select a session
│ [claude] 2026-02-19 05:28 my-project Debugging SSH tunnel config 84a36c5d
│ [copilot] 2026-02-19 04:41 my-project Migrate presets from Electron c2f5974c
│ [codex] 2026-02-18 23:12 my-project Fix OpenCode SQLite parser a1e90b3f
│ ...
└
◆ Continue in:
│ ○ Gemini ○ Codex ○ Amp ○ Kiro ...
└
When you run from a project directory, sessions from that directory are prioritized.
Quick resume
Skip the picker entirely — resume the Nth most recent session from a tool:
continues claude # latest Claude session
continues codex 3 # 3rd most recent Codex
continues amp # latest Amp
continues cline # latest Cline
continues kiro # latest Kiro
continues crush # latest Crush
continues kimi # latest Kimi
continues qwen-code # latest Qwen Code
Works for all 16 tools. This uses native resume — same tool, full history, no context injection.
Cross-tool handoff
This is the main thing. Start in one tool, finish in another:
# Hit the Claude rate limit? Hand it off to Gemini:
continues resume abc123 --in gemini
# Or pass flags through to the destination tool:
continues resume abc123 --in codex --yolo --search --add-dir /tmp
# Or print the exact handoff prompt without launching the target tool:
continues resume abc123 --in codex --debug-prompt
continues maps common flags (model, sandbox, auto-approve, extra dirs) to the target tool's equivalent. Anything it doesn't recognize gets passed through as-is.
--debug-prompt is for handoff inspection and testing. It writes the handoff file as usual, then prints the exact prompt that would be passed to the target agent and exits without launching it.
Scripting & CI
continues list # table output
continues list --source claude --json # JSON, filtered
continues list --jsonl -n 10 # JSONL, last 10
continues scan # discovery stats
continues scan --rebuild # force re-index
Inspect (for debugging)
See exactly what gets parsed and what ends up in the handoff:
continues inspect abc123 # diagnostic view
continues inspect abc123 --preset full --write-md handoff.md # dump full markdown
continues inspect abc123 --truncate 50 # compact one-liner view
Dump (bulk export)
Export all sessions to files for backup, analysis, or archival:
# Export all sessions to markdown (default)
continues dump all ./sessions
# Export specific tool's sessions
continues dump claude ./sessions/claude
continues dump gemini ./sessions/gemini
# Export as JSON instead of markdown
continues dump all ./sessions --json
# Control verbosity with presets
continues dump all ./sessions --preset full
# Limit number of sessions
continues dump all ./sessions --limit 50
File naming: {source}_{id}.md or {source}_{id}.json
Verbosity control
Not every handoff needs to be a novel. Four presets control how much detail goes in:
| Preset | Messages | Tool samples | Subagent detail | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
minimal | 3 | 0 | None | Quick context, token-constrained targets |
standard | 10 | 5 | 500 chars | Default — good balance |
verbose | 20 | 10 | 2000 chars | Debugging, complex multi-file tasks |
full | 50 | All | Everything | Complete session capture |
continues resume abc123 --preset full
YAML config
For per-project defaults, drop a .continues.yml in your project root:
preset: verbose
recentMessages: 15
shell:
maxSamples: 10
stdoutLines: 20
Resolution order: --config <path> → .continues.yml in cwd → ~/.continues/config.yml → standard preset. See .continues.example.yml for the full reference.
What gets extracted
Every tool stores sessions differently — different formats, different schemas, different paths. Here's what continues reads:
| Tool | Format | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | JSONL | ~/.claude/projects/ |
| Codex | JSONL | ~/.codex/sessions/ |
| Copilot | YAML + JSONL | ~/.copilot/session-state/ |
| Gemini CLI | JSON | ~/.gemini/tmp/*/chats/ |
| OpenCode | SQLite | ~/.local/share/opencode/storage/ |
| Factory Droid | JSONL + JSON | ~/.factory/sessions/ |
| Cursor | JSONL | ~/.cursor/projects/*/agent-transcripts/ |
| Amp | JSON | ~/.local/share/amp/threads/ |
| Kiro | JSON | ~/Library/Application Support/Kiro/workspace-sessions/ |
| Crush | SQLite | ~/.crush/crush.db |
| Cline | JSON | VS Code globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/tasks/ |
| Roo Code | JSON | VS Code globalStorage/rooveterinaryinc.roo-cline/tasks/ |
| Kilo Code | JSON | VS Code globalStorage/kilocode.kilo-code/tasks/ |
| Antigravity | PB + brain artifacts + optional live RPC | ~/.gemini/antigravity/ |
| Kimi CLI | JSONL + JSON | ~/.kimi/sessions/ |
| Qwen Code | JSONL | ~/.qwen/projects/*/chats/ |
All reads are read-only — continues never modifies your session files. Index cached at ~/.continues/sessions.jsonl (5-min TTL, auto-refresh).
Tool activity in handoffs
The handoff document includes a Tool Activity section so the target agent knows what was done, not just what was said:
## Tool Activity
- **Bash** (×47): `$ npm test → exit 0` · `$ git status → exit 0` · `$ npm run build → exit 1`
- **Edit** (×12): `edit src/auth.ts` · `edit src/api/routes.ts` · `edit tests/auth.test.ts`
- **Grep** (×8): `grep "handleLogin" src/` · `grep "JWT_SECRET"` · `grep "middleware"`
## Session Notes
- **Model**: claude-sonnet-4
- **Tokens**: 45,230 in / 12,847 out
- 💭 Need to handle the edge case where token refresh races with logout
This works for all 16 tools — bash commands, file reads/writes/edits, grep/glob, MCP tool calls, thinking blocks, subagent dispatches, token usage, model info. The shared SummaryCollector keeps the format consistent regardless of source.
Every handoff also includes the full file path of the original session, so the receiving tool can trace back to the raw data if needed.
Commands reference
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
continues | Interactive TUI picker |
continues list | List sessions (--source, --json, --jsonl, -n) |
continues resume <id> | Resume by ID (--in <tool>, --preset) |
continues inspect <id> | Diagnostic view (--truncate, --write-md, --preset) |
continues dump <source|all> <dir> | Bulk export sessions (--json, --preset, --limit) |
continues scan | Discovery stats (--rebuild) |
continues rebuild | Force-rebuild session index |
continues <tool> [n] | Quick-resume Nth session from any of the 16 tools |
Global flags: --config <path>, --preset <name>, --verbose, --debug
Community contributions
This started as a 7-tool project and grew fast thanks to contributors:
- Factory Droid support — #1, first community parser
- Cursor AI support — #4 by @Evrim267, with smart slug-to-path resolution
- Single-tool error handling — #3 by @barisgirismen, clear error when only one CLI is installed
- Env var overrides — #14 by @yutakobayashidev, respects
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR,CODEX_HOME,GEMINI_CLI_HOME,XDG_DATA_HOME
The latest batch — Amp, Kiro, Crush, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code, Antigravity, Kimi CLI, and Qwen Code — was added by reverse-engineering mnemo's Go adapters and adapting the schemas for TypeScript. Along the way we also improved token/cache/model extraction for the existing Claude, Codex, Cursor, and Gemini parsers.
Bugs fixed in this round:
- Symlink traversal —
fs.Dirent.isDirectory()returnsfalsefor symlinks; fixed withisSymbolicLink() && statSync()fallback - Zero-token display — no longer shows "0 in / 0 out" when a session has no token data
- Key Decisions count — now respects the verbosity config instead of being hardcoded to 5
Requirements
- Node.js 22.5+ (uses built-in
node:sqlitefor OpenCode and Crush) - At least one of the 16 supported tools installed
Development
git clone https://github.com/yigitkonur/cli-continues
cd cli-continues
pnpm install
pnpm run dev # run with tsx, no build needed
pnpm run build # compile TypeScript
pnpm test # run tests
pnpm run test:watch # watch mode
Adding a new tool? Create a parser in src/parsers/, add the tool name to src/types/tool-names.ts, register it in src/parsers/registry.ts. The registry has a compile-time completeness check — if you add a name but forget the parser, it throws at import.
License
MIT © Yigit Konur
Files in the repo
- .github
- .greptile
- agent-docs
- docs
- src
- test-fixtures
- .continues.example.yml
- .gitignore
- AGENTS.md
- biome.json
- CHANGELOG.md
- CLAUDE.md
- demo.mp4
- LICENSE
- package-lock.json
- package.json
- pnpm-lock.yaml
- README.md
- REVIEW.md
- tsconfig.json
- vitest.config.ts
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