Session tree

A conversation becomes a tree as soon as you revisit an earlier point and continue differently. omp keeps the path you already took and adds the new path beside it, so experimenting does not require deleting useful work.

The smallest action is:

/tree

Use the navigator to choose where you want to continue.

Read the treeCopy Anchor Link

/tree opens a full-session map. Rows are connected by tree lines, and sibling lines are alternative continuations from the same point.

• An accent bullet marks every row on the currently active path.
• The highlighted row is the point you are considering; it is not active until you press Enter.
• User and assistant text identifies turns. Tool activity and session events can also appear, depending on the filter.
• A label appears before its row and works like a durable bookmark.
• Very deep indentation is compressed with an ellipsis so the message text remains readable.

The default filter favors conversational entries. If a session looks unexpectedly sparse, press Alt+A to show everything. Type any part of a message, label, role, or tool snippet to narrow the map.

• You: Investigate the failing build
  • Assistant: The failure starts in authentication
    ├─ • You: Patch the token refresh path
    │    • Assistant: Tests now pass
    └─ You: First check whether the cache is stale
         Assistant: The cache is healthy

Here, the bullets show the active token-refresh path. The cache check is still present as another branch.

Continue from an earlier turnCopy Anchor Link

To revise a previous request without losing its original result:

1. Run /tree.
2. Highlight the earlier user message.
3. Press Enter.
4. omp moves to the point just before that message and restores the message—including its image attachments—as an editable draft.
5. Change the draft and submit it.

Submitting creates a new continuation beside the old one. The original message, its answer, and everything after it remain reachable in /tree.

Selecting an assistant response instead lands immediately after that response and leaves the editor empty. Your next prompt continues from there. Selecting the current endpoint simply closes the navigator with an “Already at this point” status.

Past interactive questions are recoverable too: selecting an earlier ask answer reopens the question UI, and a new answer becomes a sibling of the old answer.

Keep useful context from the path you leaveCopy Anchor Link

When branchSummary.enabled is enabled, Enter offers three choices:

• No summary — continue with only the context on the selected path.
• Summarize — carry a generated recap of the path you are leaving into the new path.
• Summarize with custom prompt — tell omp what the recap should preserve.

Press Shift+Enter to summarize and switch without opening that choice. The recap belongs to the new path; it does not replace or delete the abandoned path. Press Esc while summarization is running to cancel and return to the tree.

/tree, /branch, or /fork?Copy Anchor Link

These controls preserve different amounts of history:

A practical rule: use /tree when you want to compare paths in one map. To make /branch create a separate prefix session, open /settings, go to Interaction → Input, and set Double-Escape Action to Branch. Use /fork when you want a complete independent copy of everything as it stands now.

That setting also controls what pressing Esc twice in an empty editor does: open the tree, open the branch picker, or do nothing.

/fork requires a persisted session and cannot run while a response is streaming. It is unavailable for sessions started with --no-session.

Navigation controlsCopy Anchor Link

Use labels before a long experiment if you expect to return to a particular checkpoint. Later, Alt+L shows only labeled entries.

Persistence and compactionCopy Anchor Link

Completed turns and all branches are stored in the session journal. Normal tree navigation does not rewrite or erase earlier paths.

The selected point becomes the active endpoint immediately. Your next submission, a branch summary, or the normal session-exit record stores an entry on that path, so resume follows it. If omp is killed before anything can be written after a navigation-only move, resume may return to the last endpoint already represented by the journal; reopen /tree and select the intended path again.

Compaction changes what context is sent to the model on a path; it does not flatten the tree or delete the turns that produced the summary. A path through a compaction point uses that compacted context. Navigating to a point before it lets you continue from the earlier context, and other branches remain visible.

Branch summaries and compaction summaries solve different problems:

• A branch summary carries useful information across a deliberate switch to another path.
• A compaction summary shortens an active path so the conversation can continue within the model's context window.

Recover from the wrong choiceCopy Anchor Link

If you moved to the wrong point, do not recreate the conversation:

1. Run /tree again.
2. Search for distinctive text or press Alt + L to find a bookmark.
3. Follow the tree lines to the endpoint of the original path.
4. Select that endpoint with Enter.

The original path becomes active again. If you already submitted on the wrong path, that new work also remains as a sibling; returning does not delete either side.

For a stronger boundary before experimentation, use /fork first. You can then resume the original session independently through /resume if the experiment goes badly.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link