Conversations and Context

Manage your conversation history and understand the context window and session cost.

Conversations and history

Every conversation is saved on your machine as you go.

Command	What it does
cora sessions	Browse past conversations from the command line
/sessions	The same screen, without leaving cora
cora resume	Reopen the most recent conversation in this project
/new	Start a fresh conversation; CORA keeps nothing from the old one
/fork	Branch the current conversation, keeping both
/archive	Hide this conversation from the default list (it stays on disk)

The conversation picker

Search: ord▌

›  fix duplicate orders               2 hours ago
   add delivery note to orders        yesterday
   order totals are wrong for mixed ...  3 days ago

↑↓ move · enter open · ctrl+x archive · ctrl+d delete · type to search · esc cancel

Key	What it does
Type anything	Search; it matches titles and the text inside messages
↑ / ↓	Move
Enter	Open that conversation
Ctrl+X	Archive it
Ctrl+D, then Ctrl+D again	Delete it. Two presses, because there is no undo
Esc	Leave

Three useful facts:

1. History is per project. You only see conversations you had in this folder. Another project's work never clutters this one's list.

2. It works when everything else is down. Browsing your history does not need the Toolbox or a connection, which is exactly when you most want it.

3. Reopening an old conversation may show a notice saying the live session had to be started fresh. Your transcript is intact; CORA just needs to be brought back up to speed. If the detail matters, say so in your next message.

Keep unrelated work in separate conversations. One conversation should be about one thing. If you switch from an authentication bug to a documentation cleanup, start a /new conversation. Long mixed conversations get expensive and vague; short focused ones stay sharp.

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Context and cost

cora can only hold so much of a conversation in mind at once. That budget is called the context window, and /context shows how full it is.

in use 26.2k

Last turn:
  transcript, re-read   26.0k
  written to cache          0
  this prompt              110
  the answer                 3
  reasoning                  0
  total                  26.2k

turns measured 2 · session cost $0.021

It also shows what the session has cost, when there is a cost to show; a free model prints no cost line at all rather than $0.000 forever. window and remaining are not printed on this build: the provider reports no context limit, and a row that can only ever say "unknown" teaches people to skip the whole block. Everything under Last turn: is measured.

The warning

There are two warnings. At 80% full a line appears above the prompt saying so and naming the cheap remedies; at 95% a louder one says the window is nearly gone and offers /compact. Each appears once, not once per turn, and stays while it matters. Below 80% there is nothing on screen at all, on purpose. Both need a context limit from the provider, and on a build where none is reported neither can fire. /context is then the only reading you get.

What to do when it fills up

Option	What it does	When
/new	Start fresh	The next thing is unrelated anyway
/fork	Branch, keeping this conversation	You want to keep this one to come back to
/compact or Ctrl+L	Fold the older part of the conversation into a summary	You want to carry on with the same work

About /compact

1

It summarises the conversation

/compact summarises the conversation so far and keeps the recent turns in full. It takes a few seconds, because writing the summary is real work.

2

Your transcript remains intact

Nothing on your screen is deleted; a divider shows where the fold happened.

3

CORA retains the summary and recent turns

CORA keeps the summary plus the most recent turns.

4

It is lossy

A summary is a paraphrase, and a paraphrase can drop the one detail you were relying on. This is why CORA never compacts on its own without telling you.

5

Check when it last happened

/context tells you when it last happened, which answers “why has it forgotten that?” after you reopen an old conversation.

Before compacting, consider writing anything you must not lose into a file: a plan, a rule, or a note in your project. A decision recorded in a file survives everything; a decision that exists only in a conversation does not.