Managing Goose Sessions

A session is a single, continuous interaction between you and Goose, providing a space to ask questions and prompt action. In this guide, we'll cover how to start, exit, and resume a session.

Start Session

Goose Desktop

After choosing an LLM provider, you'll see the session interface ready for use. Type your questions, tasks, or instructions directly into the input field, and Goose will immediately get to work.

To start a new session at any time, click the three dots in the top-right corner of the application and select New Session from the dropdown menu.

Goose CLI

From your terminal, navigate to the directory from which you'd like to start, and run:

goose session 

info

If this is your first session, Goose will prompt you for an API key to access an LLM (Large Language Model) of your choice. For more information on setting up your API key, see the Installation Guide. Here is the list of supported LLMs.

Name Session

Goose Desktop

Within the Desktop app, sessions are automatically named using the current timestamp in the format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS. Goose also provides a description of the session based on context.

Goose CLI

By default, Goose names your session using the current timestamp in the format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS. If you'd like to provide a specific name, this is where you'd do so. For example to name your session react-migration, you would run:

goose session -n react-migration

You'll know your session has started when your terminal looks similar to the following:

starting session | provider: openai model: gpt-4o
logging to ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/react-migration.json1

Exit Session

Note that sessions are automatically saved when you exit.

Goose Desktop

To exit a session, simply close the application.

Goose CLI

To exit a session, type exit. Alternatively, you exit the session by holding down Ctrl+C.

Your session will be stored locally in ~/.local/share/goose/sessions.

Resume Session

Goose Desktop

1. Click ... in the upper right corner
2. Click Previous Sessions
3. Click a session
4. Click Resume Session in the upper right corner

Goose CLI

To resume your latest session, you can run the following command:

 goose session -r

To resume a specific session, run the following command:

goose session -r --name <name>

For example, to resume the session named react-migration, you would run:

goose session -r --name react-migration

tip

While you can resume sessions using the commands above, we recommend creating new sessions for new tasks to reduce the chance of doom spiraling.

Resume Session Across Interfaces

You can resume a CLI session in Desktop and vice versa.

Goose Desktop

All saved sessions are listed in the Desktop app, even CLI sessions. To resume a CLI session within the Desktop:

1. Click ... in the upper right corner
2. Click Previous Sessions
3. Click the session you'd like to resume

tip

If you named the session, you'll recognize the filename. However, if you don't remember the exact session name, there is a description of the topic.

4. Click Resume Session in the upper right corner

Example

CLI Command

goose session -n react-migration

Desktop Session

Session Description	Session Filename
Code Migration to React	react-migration.jsonl

Goose CLI

To resume a Desktop session within CLI, get the name of the session from the Desktop app. Note that unless you specifically named the session, its default name is a timestamp in the format YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.

1. Open Goose Desktop
2. Click ... in the upper right corner
3. Click Previous Sessions
4. Find the session that you want to resume, and copy the basename (without the .jsonl extension).

Example

Desktop Session

Session Description	Session Filename
GitHub PR Access Issue	20250305_113223.jsonl

CLI Command

goose session -r --name 20250305_113223

Remove Sessions

You can remove sessions using CLI commands. For detailed instructions on session removal, see the CLI Commands documentation.

Search Within Sessions

Search allows you to find specific content within your current session. The search functionality is available in both CLI and Desktop interfaces.

Goose Desktop

Trigger search using keyboard shortcuts or the search icon:

Action	macOS	Windows/Linux
Open Search	Cmd+F	Ctrl+F
Previous Match	↑	↑
Next Match	↓	↓
Toggle Case-Sensitivity	Aa	Aa
Close Search	Esc or X	Esc or X

Goose CLI

Search functionality is provided by your terminal interface. Use the appropriate shortcut for your environment:

Terminal	Operating System	Shortcut
iTerm2	macOS	Cmd+F
Terminal.app	macOS	Cmd+F
Windows Terminal	Windows	Ctrl+F
Linux Terminal	Linux	Ctrl+F

info

Your specific terminal emulator may use a different keyboard shortcut. Check your terminal's documentation or settings for the search command.