Menu
Use when you need to undo code edits, explore alternatives without losing a starting point, recover from a bad edit path, or restore previous conversation state — press Esc Esc or run /rewind to open checkpoints menu.
Based on SOC occupation classification
| name | claude-code-checkpointing |
| description | Use when you need to undo code edits, explore alternatives without losing a starting point, recover from a bad edit path, or restore previous conversation state — press Esc Esc or run /rewind to open checkpoints menu. |
| user-invocable | true |
Checkpointing automatically snapshots your code state before each Claude edit. You can rewind to any prior checkpoint to restore code and/or conversation history, or compress part of the conversation to free context without changing files.
rm, mv, cp, etc.) or manual edits outside Claude CodeCommand: /rewind or press Esc twice when the prompt input is empty
Opens a menu listing every prompt in the session. Select one, then choose an action:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Restore code and conversation | Revert both file edits and chat history to that point |
| Restore conversation | Keep current code, rewind chat to that point |
| Restore code | Keep chat, revert file edits to that point |
| Summarize from here | Compress this message onward into a summary; keep earlier messages intact |
| Summarize up to here | Compress everything before this message into a summary; stay at end of chat |
| Never mind | Return to menu without changing anything |
After restore, the original prompt from that checkpoint is placed in your input field for re-sending or editing.
Restore = undo. Reverts file state (or conversation, or both) on disk.
Summarize = compress. Replaces old messages with an AI-generated summary. Original detail is preserved in the transcript so Claude can reference it, but the context window is freed. Optionally guide the summary with your own instructions. (Similar to /compact, but targeted to one side of a checkpoint.)
Bash changes are not tracked. If Claude (or you) runs:
rm file.txt
mv old.txt new.txt
cp source.txt dest.txt
Rewind cannot undo these — only Claude's direct file edits are captured.
Manual and concurrent edits not tracked. Changes made outside Claude Code (in an editor or other session) are not captured unless they happen to touch the same files Claude edited.
Not a replacement for git. Checkpoints are session-local undo. For permanent history, collaboration, and long-term safety:
/commit to save after restoring/rewind to recover from a bad edit path within the current session/fork-session (or --fork-session flag) to try a direction while preserving the original sessionreset or revert for permanent history recovery/compact to summarize the entire conversation; use /rewind summarize to compress a specific sectionUse when unsure which Claude Code capability fits a task, when about to single-thread large/cross-cutting/repetitive work, or when you or the user ask what Claude Code can do — loads the full capability map (signal → capability) and points to the deep-dive skills.
Use when building custom AI agents headlessly, embedding Claude Code tools in an app, or running scripted/cron agents—need SDK package names, setup, core API entry points, supported languages, and relation to Claude Code CLI and Messages...
Use when needing to understand or manage background agents, long-running tasks, polling, scheduling, or async work in Claude Code without blocking the session.
Use when a task is too big for one context — broad audits, multi-file migrations, multi-source research, or parallel multi-dimension review — and you want to fan out and orchestrate many subagents deterministically with the Workflow tool (requires ultracode / explicit opt-in).
Use when deciding how to work on a task - choosing effort level, model, or fast mode to balance reasoning depth, speed, and token cost.
Use when setting up or debugging Claude Code GitHub Actions automation, or deciding whether to route CI/CD tasks to GitHub Actions vs local session.