# Snapshot your terminal state, restore it after a crash — Claude Code sessions included

> Source: <https://dev.to/daksh-gargas/snapshot-your-terminal-state-restore-it-after-a-crash-claude-code-sessions-included-32pj>
> Published: 2026-07-07 16:17:05+00:00

Last time I built [ claude-sessions](https://github.com/DenverLifeSciences/claude-sessions): one picker to resume any Claude Code session across projects. But a machine crash takes more than Claude with it — it takes your whole terminal

macOS window restoration exists, but it fails this job twice:

`claude`

sessions don't come back.A snapshot daemon plus an *explicit* restore — no auto-restore, ever.

Every 5 minutes, a launchd job walks every iTerm window and tab via AppleScript, and for each tab resolves the tty → the processes on it (`ps`

) → the working directory (`lsof -d cwd`

) → and whether a `claude`

process is running there, including **which session**: from its `--resume`

argument, from the transcript file it holds open, or from the newest transcript for that directory. The result is a small JSON file.

Snapshots accumulate as **history** — the last 100 *distinct* states, consecutive duplicates skipped, and an empty terminal never overwrites anything.

After a crash:

```
claude-sessions --restore-crash   # newest snapshot
claude-sessions --restore-pick    # or: fzf through history, pick the right one
```

Every tab comes back — as tabs of the window you're standing in — `cd`

'd to its old directory, with `claude --resume <session-id>`

rerun wherever Claude was live. Intentional quit? Just don't run it. You are the crash detector; that's the feature.

`~/.claude/bin`

→ iCloud), the timer dies with `Operation not permitted`

— macOS TCC silently denies background jobs access to `~/Library/Mobile Documents`

. Point the plist at a local copy.Script, launchd template, and docs:

A cross-project session picker for [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) CLI.

Your machine crashes with seven Claude Code sessions open across five repos. `claude --resume`

only lists sessions for the directory you run it from — so recovery means remembering every repo you were in, `cd`

-ing into each one, and picking from a list, seven times.

`claude-sessions`

instead lists **every session from every project** in one [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) picker, newest first. Hit Enter and the session opens in a new iTerm tab (or tmux window) running `claude --resume <id>`

in the right directory — while the picker stays open for the next one.

```
enter   open session in a new tab (picker stays open)
ctrl-a  hide/show agent-teammate sessions (⛭)
ctrl-r  refresh the list
esc     quit
```

Each line shows the session's age, project directory, git branch (when not main/master), and its opening message. A preview pane shows the last few user/assistant exchanges of the…