session-lifecycle

Session Lifecycle

A session is a durable conversation thread between user and agent. Manage it well and you avoid blown context windows, lost state, and confused users.

When to Use

• Designing multi-turn agent UX
• Debugging context-loss or context-overflow
• Choosing when to fork vs resume vs start fresh
• Setting retention policies for session storage

Session States

[idle] → [running] → [idle]        # user sends → agent responds → waits
[idle] → [compacting] → [idle]     # background context reduction
[idle] → [archived]                # user/TTL-triggered

Sessions are long-lived. A single session can span hours to weeks with compaction keeping context in budget.

Creating a Session

// SDK
const sessionId = crypto.randomUUID();
for await (const msg of query({ prompt: firstMessage, options: { sessionId } })) { /* ... */ }

// Managed
const session = await client.beta.sessions.create({ agent_id, metadata: { user_id } });

Always attach your own identifiers in metadata — user ID, tenant, feature flag — so you can filter and audit later.

Resuming

// SDK
for await (const msg of query({ prompt: followUp, options: { resume: sessionId } })) { /* ... */ }

// Managed
await client.beta.sessions.messages.create({ session_id, content: followUp });

Resume when:

• Same user, same topic — preserve context
• Debugging an earlier decision — replay state
• Continuing a long-running workflow

When to Start Fresh

Don't resume when:

• Topic changed completely (user pivoted to a new project)
• Session has stale or incorrect state you can't prompt-correct
• User logged in as a different identity
• Context is so full that compaction would lose critical recent info

Starting fresh is free. Resuming a bad session is expensive.

Compaction

When context approaches the model's limit, older messages are compressed into a summary. Two flavors:

1. Auto-compaction (Managed default, SDK opt-in): system summarizes older turns
2. Manual compaction: your app triggers it, optionally with custom instructions

Manual example (SDK):

await compactSession({
  sessionId,
  instruction: "Preserve every architectural decision and all file paths mentioned.",
});

Compaction is lossy. If something matters, pin it to memory (see the memory-tool skill) or re-inject it in the next user message.

Forking

Sometimes you want to explore a branch without polluting the main session:

const fork = await client.beta.sessions.fork({
  source_session_id: session.id,
  metadata: { purpose: "hypothesis-check" },
});

Both sessions share history up to the fork point, then diverge. Useful for:

• "What-if" exploration (try an alternative plan)
• A/B testing prompts on identical context
• Creating a clean branch for a new sub-task

Archiving & Retention

await client.beta.sessions.archive({ session_id });
// Archived sessions are retained but not resumable without un-archive

Set retention policies:

• User-facing chats: retain 30-90 days, archive thereafter
• Support tickets: retain for full compliance window (often 7 years)
• Debug/internal sessions: retain 7 days, hard-delete after

Storage adds up at scale. Default retention may be longer than you need.

Handling Overflow

If compaction still can't fit context (rare but possible on huge sessions):

1. Compact aggressively with narrow instruction: "Keep only the last 3 user decisions"
2. Fork and start a summary-carrying child session
3. Move static context to a cached prompt (see prompt-caching-ttl)
4. Offload to memory tool so the agent re-fetches only what's needed

Session Metadata Patterns

metadata: {
  user_id: "u-42",
  tenant_id: "t-3",
  thread_type: "support",
  topic: "billing",
  started_at: "2026-04-15T10:30:00Z",
  feature_flag: "beta-v2",
}

This becomes your query surface. Use it for:

• Dashboards: sessions by tenant, topic, feature
• Audits: every session a user had
• Migration: identify sessions on old config to re-run after changes

Multi-Device Sessions

User starts on mobile, continues on web. Two options:

1. Single session ID per logical conversation — both devices POST to same session (Managed handles concurrency)
2. Device-scoped sessions — separate sessions with shared metadata; sync only to user-visible state

Prefer (1) unless you have strong reason — Managed handles concurrent writes with last-writer-wins; simple enough.

Anti-Patterns

1. Infinite resume — never starting fresh; session becomes bloated and incoherent
2. No compaction strategy — blown context window errors in prod
3. No metadata — can't find sessions after the fact
4. Archiving without retention policy — storage bill grows unbounded
5. Cross-user session sharing — privacy leak

Best Practices

1. Start new sessions when the topic changes; resume for true continuations
2. Attach rich metadata at session creation — your future self needs it
3. Use manual compaction with custom instructions for session-critical info
4. Fork for "what-if" exploration; never branch by cloning messages manually
5. Define retention policy per use case; enforce via scheduled archiver
6. Move stable context to cache or memory; leave sessions for the conversation itself