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Show HN: Possess, a TUI to browse and transfer coding sessions

Steven P. Walsh released Possess, an open-source TUI that lets developers browse and transfer coding sessions between AI coding agents Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and Grok, enabling context handoffs without restarting conversations. The tool, available on GitHub and requiring macOS or Linux, Git, and Rust 1.92+, saves conversation history, tool calls, plans, and Git state into local handoff packages, and supports commands like `possess list`, `possess handoff`, and `possess resume`.

read3 min views1 publishedSep 7, 2026
Show HN: Possess, a TUI to browse and transfer coding sessions
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)
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Switch coding agents without starting the conversation over.

CD to your project repo, run possess, pick a session, and resume or choose which agent should take over.

Possess works with Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and Grok.

You'll need macOS or Linux, Git, and Rust 1.92+. Install and log into whichever coding harnesses you want to use first.

git clone https://github.com/steven-p-walsh/Possess.git
cd Possess
cargo install --path . --locked
possess

If your shell can't find possess, check that ~/.cargo/bin is on your PATH. See the installation guide for setup help, release archives, and upgrades.

Launch Possess from your project directory. It shows sessions for that project, including ones started from subdirectories of the same Git repo. Outside Git, it uses the current directory. Run possess --all-projects to see everything.

Select a session to see where you left off, then press Enter to choose a harness. Choose the same harness and it just resumes the original session. Choose another and you can pick a model and agent before handing over. When the harness exits, you're back in Possess.

Claude's model list picks up your settings and recently used models, with Fable, Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku as fallbacks. You can also enter a model name yourself.

Key Action
Arrows or j /k Move through sessions
/ Search
Enter Choose a harness to continue in
r Resume with the original harness
R Refresh the list
? All shortcuts
q Quit

If a harness or its sessions aren't showing up, run possess doctor to check what was detected. You can set custom paths in ~/.config/possess/config.toml; the setup guide has an example.

Possess saves the conversation, tool calls and results, plans, and Git state in a local handoff package. Your project stays in place, and the original session stays available.

The harnesses don't share a session format. Possess imports history where it can; otherwise it starts the new agent with a handoff prompt built around recent work, open tasks, and errors. The saved history is there if the agent needs more detail. Which path you get depends on the harness and version; the compatibility notes cover that.

Handoffs live in ~/.local/share/possess (or POSSESS_HOME). They can contain private conversation and code, so keep them out of your repo. Possess doesn't need API keys of its own; each harness uses its existing login.

You can also skip the picker. Use a session ID from possess list:

possess list
possess list --all-projects
possess show SESSION_ID
possess handoff SESSION_ID --to codex
possess resume SESSION_ID

Add --model or --agent to a handoff to choose either explicitly. --no-launch prepares the handoff without starting the destination harness. For the same harness, it only prepares a resume command; no package is created. Run possess handoff --help for the rest.

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cargo test

The architecture notes explain how discovery and handoffs work. CONTRIBUTING.md covers adapter changes and comments: explain the reason for the code, not what the next line does.

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