Sessmgr — Named Session Manager#

Give your OpenClaw sessions memorable names and pick them up exactly where you left off. No more hunting through cryptic session IDs.

At a Glance#

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/sessmgr <action> [args]

Actions:
  name     <name> [description]    Name the current session
  list                           Show all named sessions
  reload   <name>                 Switch to a named session
  new      <name>                 Start a fresh named session
  rename   <old> <new>            Rename a session
  save     <name>                 Touch a session's last-used time
  delete   <name>                 Remove a name (keeps transcript)

Natural language works too — "name this session project-alpha", "switch to my-dev-session", etc.

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Why Named Sessions?#

• Remember what you were doing — "auth-redesign" beats 199f3a3c-882a-4cec-9f86-693bca7b9fa1
• Pick up exactly where you left off — /sessmgr reload project-alpha restores context
• Multiple concurrent threads — name each conversation thread, switch between them instantly
• Never lose context — deleting a name preserves the transcript; you can always recover

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Actions#

name <name> [description]#

What it does: Tags the current session with a memorable name.

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/sessmgr name auth-redesign OAuth flow refactor

Natural language: "name this session auth-redesign" / "call this session my blog draft"

Details:

• If the name already belongs to this session → updates the description
• If the name belongs to a different session → error (use rename to reclaim it)
• Description is optional but recommended — "OAuth flow refactor" beats nothing

Output on success:

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Named session 'auth-redesign' -> 199f3a3c-882a-4cec-9f86-693bca7b9fa1
  Description: OAuth flow refactor

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list#

What it does: Shows all named sessions with metadata.

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/sessmgr list

Natural language: "list my sessions" / "show all named sessions"

Output:

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Name              Session ID                        Created                     Last Used                   Description
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
auth-redesign     199f3a3c-882a-4cec-9f86-693bca7b9fa1  2026-04-19T11:08:49+00:00   2026-04-19T14:22:00+00:00   OAuth flow refactor
dev-work          a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890  2026-04-18T09:30:00+00:00   2026-04-18T16:45:00+00:00   Backend API investigation

Tips:

• Active session is marked implicitly by having the most recent lastUsed that matches your current session ID
• Sessions are sorted alphabetically

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reload <name>#

What it does: Switches to a named session by printing RELOAD_SESSION:<sessionId>.

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/sessmgr reload auth-redesign

Natural language: "switch to auth-redesign" / "go to session dev-work" / "load project-alpha"

Output on success:

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RELOAD_SESSION:199f3a3c-882a-4cec-9f86-693bca7b9fa1

If the name doesn't exist:

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Error: no session named 'auth-redesign'. To start a new session with this name, use /sessmgr new auth-redesign

⚠️ Channel limitation: Reloading only works within the same channel. Webchat sessions reload in webchat, Telegram in Telegram, etc. Cross-channel switching is not supported.

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new <name>#

What it does: Confirms the name is available, then prints NEW_SESSION:<name> to signal intent to start fresh.

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/sessmgr new project-alpha

Natural language: "start a new session called project-alpha" / "create a new session named staging"

Output on success:

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NEW_SESSION:project-alpha

If the name already exists:

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Error: a session named 'project-alpha' already exists. Use /sessmgr reload project-alpha to return to it.

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rename <old-name> <new-name>#

What it does: Changes the name of an existing session without touching the transcript.

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/sessmgr rename dev-work backend-research

Natural language: "rename dev to staging" / "change session name from old-session to new-session"

Output on success:

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Renamed 'dev-work' -> 'backend-research'.

Validation:

• new-name must be unique (no existing session with that name)
• Both names must be valid: letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores only
• Transcript file is never modified — only the name mapping changes

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save <name>#

What it does: Updates the lastUsed timestamp without leaving the current session. Useful for marking a session as "alive" without switching.

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/sessmgr save auth-redesign

Natural language: "save session auth-redesign" / "touch the timestamp for my dev session"

Output:

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Saved session 'auth-redesign' (updated lastUsed).

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delete <name>#

What it does: Removes the name mapping. The transcript file ( .jsonl) is never deleted — only the human-readable name is removed.

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/sessmgr delete old-session

Natural language: "delete session old-session" / "remove the name old-session"

Output:

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Deleted session name 'old-session' (session file preserved).

Recovery: If you delete a name by accident, the session transcript still exists at ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonl. You can find it by checking sessions.json and re-name it with /sessmgr name.

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Data Storage#

FilePurpose~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/names.jsonName → sessionId mapping with metadata~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonlThe actual session transcript (never deleted)

names.json entry structure:

json

{
  "sessionId": "199f3a3c-882a-4cec-9f86-693bca7b9fa1",
  "created": "2026-04-19T11:08:49.440540+00:00",
  "lastUsed": "2026-04-19T14:22:00.000000+00:00",
  "description": "OAuth flow refactor"
}

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Validation Rules#

RuleDetailsAllowed charactersLetters ( a-z, A-Z), digits ( 0-9), hyphens ( -), underscores ( _)Max length64 charactersCasePreserved — Auth-Redesign and auth-redesign are different namesReserved namesNone, but avoid names that look like actions ( name, list, new, etc.) to prevent ambiguity

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Error Reference#

SituationMessageName doesn't exist (reload)Error: no session named '<name>'. To start a new session with this name, use /sessmgr new <name>Name already taken (new)Error: a session named '<name>' already exists. Use /sessmgr reload <name> to return to it.Name belongs to another sessionError: name '<name>' is already assigned to a different session.Invalid charactersError: name must be alphanumeric, hyphens, or underscores only.Can't determine current sessionError: could not determine current session ID.New name already exists (rename)Error: name '<new-name>' already exists.Name doesn't exist (save/delete/rename)Error: no session named '<name>'.

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Tips & Tricks#

Multiple projects simultaneously:

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/sessmgr name frontend-rework
# work on frontend...
/sessmgr name backend-api
# work on backend...
/sessmgr reload frontend-rework  # pick up exactly where you left off

Meaningful descriptions:

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/sessmgr name auth-redesign "Fixing OAuth callback, third attempt"

Check before starting new:

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/sessmgr list
# see if 'staging' already exists before /sessmgr new staging

Session cleanup without losing history:

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/sessmgr delete old-session  # removes the name
# transcript still at: ~/.openclaw/agents/main/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonl