Part 2 · Sessions
Sessions & the context window
This one idea makes Claude faster, cheaper and sharper. Once it clicks, everything else gets easier.
A session is one job
Each chat down the left is a session. Give each one a single job.
Your AIOS — Claude Code
+ New session
- Draft this week's client update
- Prime
- Fix the booking form
- Prime
- Build the monthly report
- Prime
Getting full — commit & start fresh
◀The list on the left is your sessions. Notice each one starts with Prime, that's a new session, primed and ready for its own job.
▶The ring is your context window, how full Claude's short-term memory is right now.
Why the context window matters
Think of it as Claude's short-term memory for this session.
- Everything you do in a session fills it up. Once it's over about 70% full, two things happen: the quality starts to slip, and it burns more tokens on every message.
- So you don't want one giant session that runs all day, it gets slower and more expensive the fuller it gets.
- The answer isn't to be careful, it's to work in fresh sessions and let each one stay light.
The rhythm: save, and start fresh
The habit that keeps everything fast.
The save-point rhythm
Do a task → /commit → new session → /prime
It's like pressing save on a PlayStation game. You finish a task, commit to save it, then open a fresh session and prime it. Claude picks up knowing exactly where you left off, with a clean, fast context window.
- Finish a task, then
/commit. It saves and backs up everything you just did (more on that in Your files).
- Start a new session for the next task and run
/prime. Fresh memory, full context, back to full speed.
- Want to tidy the sidebar too? Commit, then
/exit to clear it out, then /prime again to refresh and carry on.
Run two or three at once
A little trick to move faster.
- You can have two or three sessions open at a time. Any more and you'll lose track, so keep it to a handful.
- The trick: while one session is thinking, switch to another and keep working. Bounce between them so nothing sits waiting on you.
- Keep each one on its own job, and they stay easy to follow.