Resuming a Session
beginnerDefinition
Reopening an earlier Claude Code conversation with its history intact, using `claude --continue` for the most recent one or /resume to pick from older ones.
In the wild
You stopped halfway through updating the reading-list app yesterday, so today you run `claude --continue` and just say "carry on with step 4."
More from Claude Code
--plugin-dir
A Claude Code launch option that loads a plugin straight from a folder on your computer for one session, so you can try it while you're still building it.
@-mention (File Reference)
Typing @ followed by a file's name in a Claude Code prompt to point Claude at that exact file, so it doesn't have to search for it.
Agentic Loop
The repeating cycle Claude Code works in: look around the project, take one step such as editing a file or running a command, check what happened, and decide the next step until the task is done.
Checkpoint (/rewind)
A restore point Claude Code saves before each edit Claude makes, so you can run /rewind (or press Esc twice) to go back to an earlier moment. It only tracks Claude's own file edits, so it doesn't replace Git.
CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT
A placeholder, written `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`, that Claude Code swaps for the folder a plugin is installed in, so the plugin's file paths work on everyone's computer. That folder changes with each update, so anything the plugin needs to keep goes in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}` instead.
CLAUDE.md
A notes file in your project that Claude Code reads at the start of every session, holding the rules and commands you'd otherwise repeat in every prompt (/init writes a starter version).