README
¶
showagent
showagent — every AI coding session on your machine, in one TUI.
Browse, search, resume, branch — and convert a conversation from one agent to another.
Codex · Claude Code · Gemini CLI · OpenCode · jcode

Started debugging in Codex and want Claude's take? Press
x. Your conversation moves with you — every user and assistant turn, rewritten in the target agent's native session format.
Why
You use more than one coding agent now — most of us do. But every agent buries its sessions in its own format under its own dot-directory, and yesterday's context is trapped in whichever tool you happened to start it in. showagent reads the session stores straight off disk and gives you one searchable picker for all of them. It is the only TUI that combines browse + search + resume + branch + convert across agents.
- One list for everything — sessions from every agent, grouped by workspace, fuzzy-searchable, newest first.
- Resume or branch anywhere — reopen a session in its own CLI, or fork a local copy to try a different direction.
- Convert between agents — rewrite a session into another agent's native format so that agent's own resume just works. Originals are never modified; conversions are written atomically.
- 100% local — one static binary that reads your own files. No server, no telemetry, no account.
Supported agents
| Agent | CLI | Sessions read from | Env override | Convert from | Convert to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codex | codex |
~/.codex/sessions/**/*.jsonl |
CODEX_HOME |
✅ | ✅ |
| Claude Code | claude |
~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl |
CLAUDE_HOME |
✅ | ✅ |
| Gemini CLI | gemini |
~/.gemini/tmp/<project>/chats/ |
GEMINI_CLI_HOME |
✅ | ✅ |
| OpenCode | opencode |
opencode.db, via the opencode CLI |
OPENCODE_DATA_HOME |
✅ | ✅ |
| jcode | jcode |
~/.jcode/sessions/*.json |
JCODE_HOME |
✅ | ✅ |
Notes:
- OpenCode stores sessions in a SQLite database, so every OpenCode operation
(discover, export, import, delete) goes through your own
opencodeCLI — showagent never writes into the database directly. OpenCode and jcode only appear when their CLI is installed. - Converting to an agent requires that agent's CLI on
PATH, so the result can actually be resumed. - jcode is a niche, experimental agent CLI. Its support is auto-hidden: if no
jcodebinary is onPATH, showagent never shows it. - Platforms: Linux and macOS (amd64 + arm64). Windows (amd64) builds are released but experimental: resume runs the agent as a child process instead of replacing showagent.
Install
# Homebrew (Linux/macOS)
brew install aytzey/tap/showagent
# install script (Linux/macOS, puts the binary in ~/.local/bin)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aytzey/showagent/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
# Go 1.25+
go install github.com/aytzey/showagent/cmd/showagent@latest
Or grab an archive from the releases page
— linux/darwin amd64 + arm64, windows amd64 (experimental).
Quick start
showagent # open the interactive picker
showagent list # plain table of every session
showagent list --json # the same, machine-readable
showagent resume latest # reopen the most recent session, any agent
showagent convert latest --to claude --dry-run
# preview exactly what a hand-off would carry/drop
showagent info latest # exact resume command + storage location
showagent mcp # serve session history to MCP-capable agents (stdio)
showagent update # install the latest GitHub release
showagent --help # full CLI help
Keybindings
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
↑/k, ↓/j, pgup/pgdn |
Move through sessions |
/ |
Fuzzy search across agent, workspace, session id, and messages |
enter |
Resume the selected session in its own CLI |
1..9 |
Toggle provider visibility, numbered as listed in the header bar |
p |
Cycle the preview column: first → latest → first + latest message |
space |
Collapse or expand the selected workspace group |
o |
Cycle the convert target for the selected session |
t |
Cycle the convert scope: all turns, or latest 200/100/50/20/10 |
x |
Preview convert; press x again to write and select the new session |
n |
Branch: create a full local copy of the session |
y |
Toggle yolo resume (skip the agent's permission prompts) |
C |
Compound: resume with a learnings-capture prompt (see below) |
d, del, backspace |
Delete the session — second press confirms, moving disarms |
r |
Rescan session stores (keeps cursor, search, and filters) |
? |
Toggle the full keybinding overlay |
esc |
Clear search / close overlay / cancel an armed delete (never quits) |
q, ctrl+c |
Quit |
Scripting
showagent list --json emits an array sorted newest-first — the field names
are a stable contract:
[
{
"id": "1f7c9a2e-4b31-4c8e-9d02-8a5e3f6b1c44",
"provider": "codex",
"workspace": "/home/you/code/api-server",
"updated": "2026-07-08T19:51:25Z",
"first_message": "Add rate limiting to POST /v1/charges",
"last_message": "the redis TTL test is flaky - mock the clock"
}
]
showagent resume <id|latest> [--yolo] resumes without the picker, so a shell
alias can reopen your last session in one keystroke.
showagent convert <id|latest> --to <provider> --dry-run prints the hand-off
before writing anything: source session, target provider, workspace, scope,
transferable turn count, last user ask, and the agent-specific state that will
be dropped. Remove --dry-run to write the converted session, then showagent
prints the resume recipe for the new row.
showagent info <id|latest> [--yolo] prints the exact resume command,
working directory, and storage location for a session.
Exit codes: 0 success, 1 error (including "no sessions found"), 2 usage.
When stdout is not a terminal, plain showagent prints the list table, so
pipes just work.
Use it from inside your agent (MCP)
showagent mcp runs a stdio MCP server, so the agent you are talking to can
search every past coding session on your machine — from any agent — and
pull one in as context or convert it to continue right there. Ask Claude Code
"have I solved this rate-limit bug before?" and it can find the Codex session
where you did, read the transcript, and hand you the command to resume it —
or rewrite it as a native Claude Code session and keep going. Your session
history stops being per-tool memory and becomes shared memory.
# Claude Code
claude mcp add showagent -- showagent mcp
# Codex (~/.codex/config.toml)
[mcp_servers.showagent]
command = "showagent"
args = ["mcp"]
Tools:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
list_sessions |
Search sessions across all agents — filter by provider, workspace substring, or free text over workspace + first/last user message (default 25, max 100 results) |
get_transcript |
Read a session's user/assistant turns; max_turns keeps the most recent N (default 50) so long sessions don't flood context |
branch_session |
Fork a full local copy of a session, same agent; returns the new id, file, and resume command |
convert_session |
Rewrite a session into another agent's native format; returns the new id, file, and resume command |
resume_command |
The exact shell command (and cwd) that resumes a session — returned as a string, never executed |
The MCP surface is deliberately non-destructive: there is no delete tool, and the server never executes an agent CLI. Deleting sessions stays exclusive to the TUI, where it takes two key presses with a human watching. Branch and convert only ever write new files — originals are never modified.
How it compares
Great tools exist for running agents in parallel — showagent is about the sessions they leave behind. claude-squad and ccmanager orchestrate multiple live agents in tmux sessions and git worktrees, which is the right choice when you want several agents working at once. Agent Sessions is a polished macOS app for browsing session history across many agents. showagent is the history-first, terminal-first take: a single cross-platform binary that reads the session stores on disk, resumes and branches from them — and is the only one of the group that converts a session from one agent's format to another's.
Compound engineering
Press C on a session and pick an agent. showagent resumes the session there
and starts it on a compound-engineering pass: review what was solved, then
record the durable learnings as markdown.
Learnings are pooled per project but shared across agents: each workspace gets
a directory under ~/.showagent/learnings/<project>/ (override with
SHOWAGENT_LEARNINGS_DIR) that every agent reads and writes. Picking an agent
that did not create the session converts it first, so it has full context.
showagent setup installs the companion
compound-engineering plugin
into the Codex and Claude Code CLIs found on the machine. It is idempotent and
only installs what is missing.
FAQ
Is my session data sent anywhere?
No session content leaves your machine. showagent reads session files where the
agents left them; there is no server, no telemetry, and no account. The only
network path is the optional release updater: showagent update, and the
startup "update available?" check for release builds (disable with
SHOWAGENT_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1). Message previews additionally redact
password-like strings and API keys before rendering (covered by tests in
internal/session/session_test.go).
Release archives ship with a SHA256SUMS file, and releases after v0.7.0
also carry GitHub build provenance — verify with
gh attestation verify <file> --repo aytzey/showagent.
How does conversion work?
Conversion extracts the user and assistant turns from the source transcript
and writes a brand-new session in the target agent's native format (for
OpenCode, via opencode import), so the target's own resume command picks it
up. The original session is never modified, and files are written atomically —
a crash cannot leave a half-written session in another tool's store.
Trust is explicit: in the TUI, the first x shows the hand-off preview and the
second x writes it. In scripts, use showagent convert ... --dry-run for
the same preview. Conversion intentionally does not copy tool-call
internals, approval history, encrypted reasoning blobs, or provider
attachments: those are private to the source agent and would not replay
correctly anyway. t / --scope trims the scope to the latest N turns before
converting.
What does delete actually do?
Codex sessions are deleted through codex delete --force; OpenCode through
opencode session delete (which cascades inside its database); Claude Code,
Gemini, and jcode by removing the session file. Delete always takes two
presses, and moving the cursor disarms it.
Windows? Binaries are released and the whole TUI works, but resume semantics are approximated (child process instead of exec), so Windows is labeled experimental until it has seen real use.
A session is missing from the list.
Run showagent list with no sessions found and it prints exactly which
directories were scanned and which env vars override them. r rescans
in-place after you start a new conversation.
Adding a provider
A provider is one self-contained file implementing the 8-method interface in
internal/session/provider.go — around 250
lines including discovery, resume arguments, transcript extraction, and
conversion. gemini.go (file-based store) and
opencode.go (CLI-based store) are the two
templates. Register it in the registry slice and the TUI picks up badges,
filter keys, and convert targets automatically. Add a matching env override
so its tests stay hermetic. Issues and PRs welcome.
Building
git clone https://github.com/aytzey/showagent.git
cd showagent
go test ./...
go build -o showagent ./cmd/showagent
The demo GIF is recorded hermetically with vhs
against fabricated fixtures — see demo/README.md.
License
MIT. Built with Bubble Tea, Bubbles, and Lip Gloss.
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
cmd
|
|
|
showagent
command
|
|
|
internal
|
|
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mcpserver
Package mcpserver exposes showagent's session store as an MCP server over stdio, so any MCP-capable agent (Claude Code, Codex, ...) can search the user's coding-session history across every supported agent and pull a past conversation in as context.
|
Package mcpserver exposes showagent's session store as an MCP server over stdio, so any MCP-capable agent (Claude Code, Codex, ...) can search the user's coding-session history across every supported agent and pull a past conversation in as context. |