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
- Goose CLI
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. You can start a new session in the same directory or in a different directory.
- Same Directory
- Different Directory
To start a session in the same window:
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
Home
in the sidebar - Send your first prompt from the chat box
To start a session in a new window:
- Click the button in the top-left
- In the new Goose window, send your first prompt from the chat box
- Click the directory switcher at the bottom of the app
- Navigate to the new directory or create a new folder
- Click
Open
to open a new Goose window for the selected directory - Send your first prompt from the chat box
On macOS, you can drag and drop a folder onto the Goose icon in the dock to open a new session in that directory.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to start a new session or bring focus to open Goose windows.
Action | macOS | Windows/Linux |
---|---|---|
New Session in Current Directory | Cmd+N | Ctrl+N |
New Session in Different Directory | Cmd+O | Ctrl+O |
Focus Goose Window | Cmd+Option+Shift+G | Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G |
From your terminal, navigate to the directory from which you'd like to start, and run:
goose session
If you want to interact with Goose in a web-based chat interface, start a session with the web
command:
goose web --open
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
- Goose CLI
Within the Desktop app, sessions are automatically named based on the context of your initial prompt.
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
- Goose CLI
To exit a session, simply close the application.
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
.
Search Sessions
Search allows you to find specific content within sessions or find specific sessions.
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
You can use keyboard shortcuts and search bar buttons to search sessions in Goose Desktop.
Action | macOS | Windows/Linux |
---|---|---|
Open Search | Cmd+F | Ctrl+F |
Next Match | Cmd+G or ↓ | Ctrl+G or ↓ |
Previous Match | Shift+Cmd+G or ↑ | Shift+Ctrl+G or ↑ |
Use Selection for Find | Cmd+E | n/a |
Toggle Case-Sensitivity | Aa | Aa |
Close Search | Esc or X | Esc or X |
The following scenarios are supported:
Search Within Current Session
To find specific content within your current session:
- Use
Cmd+F
to open the search bar - Enter your search term
- Use shortcuts and search bar buttons to navigate the results
Search For Session By Name or Path
To search all your sessions by name or working directory path:
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
History
in the sidebar - Use
Cmd+F
to open the search bar - Enter your search term
- Use keyboard shortcuts and search bar buttons to navigate the results (
Cmd+E
not supported)
This is a metadata-only search. It doesn't search conversation content. Note that searching by file name is supported (e.g. 20250727_130002.jsonl
), but this property isn't displayed in the UI.
Search Within Historical Session
To find specific content within a historical session:
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
History
in the sidebar - Click a specific session tile from the list to view its content
- Use
Cmd+F
to open the search bar - Enter your search term
- Use keyboard shortcuts and search bar buttons to navigate the results
Using regular expressions or search operators in search text isn't supported.
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 |
Your specific terminal emulator may use a different keyboard shortcut. Check your terminal's documentation or settings for the search command.
The Goose CLI supports listing session history but doesn't provide search functionality. As a workaround, you can use your terminal's search capabilities (including regex support) to search for specific content within sessions or find specific sessions.
Examples for macOS:
# Search session IDs (filenames)
ls ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/ | grep "full or partial session id"
# List sessions modified in last 7 days
find ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/ -mtime -7 -name "*.jsonl"
# Show first line (metadata) of each session file
for f in ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/*.jsonl; do
head -n1 "$f" | grep "your search term" && echo "Found in: $(basename "$f" .jsonl)"
done
# Find search term in session content
rg "your search term" ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/
# Search and show session IDs that contain search term
for f in ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/*.jsonl; do
if grep -q "your search term" "$f"; then
echo "Found in session: $(basename "$f" .jsonl)"
fi
done
Resume Session
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
History
in the sidebar - Click the session you'd like to resume. Goose provides search features to help you find the session.
- Choose how to resume:
- Click
Resume
to continue in the current window - Click
New Window
to open in a new window
- Click
You can also quickly resume one of your three most recent sessions by clicking it in the Recent chats
section on the Home
page.
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
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.
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
All saved sessions are listed in the Desktop app, even CLI sessions. To resume a CLI session within the Desktop:
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
History
in the sidebar - Click the session you'd like to resume
- Choose how to resume:
- Click
Resume
to continue in the current window - Click
New Window
to open in a new window
- Click
Currently, you cannot resume a Desktop session within the CLI.
Project-Based Sessions
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
Project-based sessions are only available through the CLI.
You can use the project
and projects
commands to start or resume sessions from a project, which is a tracked working directory with session metadata. For a complete guide to using Projects, see Managing Projects Guide.
Remove Sessions
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
Removing sessions is only available through the CLI.
You can remove sessions using CLI commands. For detailed instructions on session removal, see the CLI Commands documentation.
Export Sessions
Export sessions to Markdown to share with your team, create documentation, archive conversations, or review them in a readable format.
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
Session export is currently only available through the CLI.
Export sessions using the export
subcommand:
# Interactive export - prompts you to select a session
goose session export
For more details on export options, available flags, and output formats, see the CLI commands documentation.
Voice Dictation
Speak to Goose directly instead of typing your prompts.
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
To enable voice dictation:
- Click the button in the top-left to open the sidebar
- Click
Settings
in the sidebar - Click
Chat
- Under
Voice Dictation
, toggleEnable Voice Dictation
on - Choose between
OpenAI Whisper
orElevenLabs
as your dictation provider - Enter your API key for the provider you chose
To use voice dictation:
- Return to the chat interface (click
Chat
in the sidebar) - Click the microphone on the right of the chat box and begin speaking
The first time you use voice dictation, Goose will request access to your microphone. While recording, you'll see a live waveform of your audio in the input field, a timer, and the current size of your recording. Click the microphone button again to finish recording.
If you don't see the microphone, check the models you have configured. ElevenLabs can be used as a dictation provider alongside any LLM, but OpenAI Whisper requires that you have an OpenAI model configured in Goose, even if using another LLM provider for chat.
Important Notes
- You can record up to 10 minutes or 25MB of audio.
- The audio is processed by your chosen provider (OpenAI or ElevenLabs).
- Voice input is appended to any existing text in the text input field, so you can combine typing and speaking your prompts.
- Recordings are not stored locally after transcription.
Voice dictation is not available in the Goose CLI.
Share Files in Session
- Goose Desktop
- Goose CLI
Share files with Goose in several ways:
-
Drag and Drop: Simply drag files from your computer's file explorer/finder and drop them anywhere in the chat window. The file paths will be automatically added to your message.
-
File Browser: Click the button at the bottom of the app to open your system's file browser and select files.
-
Manual Path: Type or paste the file path directly into the chat input.
-
Quick File Search: Use the
@
shortcut key to quickly find and include files.
You can reference files by their paths directly in your messages. Since you're already in a terminal, you can use standard shell commands to help with file paths:
# Reference a specific file
What does this code do? ./src/main.rs
# Use tab completion
Can you explain the function in ./src/lib<tab>
# Use shell expansion
Review these test files: ./tests/*.rs