Organize sessions and recover work

Applies to Proqi 0.11.0.

Names and separators help you recognize work without changing prompt bodies. Sessions keep separate boards resumable. Recovery operations distinguish reversible local changes from permanent deletion.

Name a thought without changing its body

Focus or edit a thought, then press Ctrl+R or choose Rename thought in Commands. You can also click a visible thought name. Confirm with Enter or cancel with Escape.

A name is optional, single-line organizational metadata. Creating a thought never asks for one. Copying or delivering a thought uses its body and annotations without prepending the name. Clearing a name does not clear the body.

Insert visual separators

Choose Insert separator in Commands. The new separator appears below the focused Board item. On an empty Board it becomes the first item without creating a blank thought.

A separator is a durable, payload-free Board item. It has no body, name, attachment, or editor and does not own neighboring thoughts. Moving or deleting it never moves or deletes those neighbors. Consecutive separators remain distinct selectable items.

Separators participate in focus, selection, duplicate, delete, movement, session persistence, and Board undo. Copy, cut, cleanup, collapse, and agent delivery omit them. A recovery export retains their identity and Board order.

Export thoughts to a text file

Proqi 0.15.0

Focus a thought or select several, open Commands, and choose one of three actions:

• Export to file... writes the file and leaves the Board unchanged.
• Export to file and remove... writes the file, then removes the exported thoughts.
• Export to file and replace with reference... writes the file, then replaces the exported thoughts with one thought that holds the file's absolute path followed by one space. It appears as [File N], like a Screenshot Inbox capture, and is ready to deliver to an agent.

A path field opens with a suggested destination. Edit it freely, press Tab to complete a folder or file name (press it again to cycle through several matches, Shift+Tab goes back), then press Enter or click the save row. Escape cancels. Down and Up also move through the matches, and PageDown and PageUp jump five at a time. With a mouse, scroll to move through the matches the same way, click a completion row to use it, and click the save row to write. The list scrolls to keep the highlighted match visible. In a very large folder, type more of the name if Proqi asks for it.

• Where it goes. The suggestion is the session's folder: the directory where the session was most recently opened. A relative path you type also resolves from there, and ~/ resolves from your home folder. A missing folder is reported and never created. When that folder is a Git working tree, the file lands in the working tree, like any file you save there.
• Default name. One selected thought with a name uses that name. Otherwise the name is the session name plus a UTC timestamp, such as research-2026-09-25-132012.txt. Characters that are unsafe in file names become -.
• What it contains. Exactly the text that copying the same thoughts produces: their bodies in Board order, separated by one blank line, with no names or headings. Separators are skipped. The separator between thoughts is always this copy separator; the merge_separator setting affects only merging. Attached files are referenced by the same paths as in the copy text, never copied.
• Existing files. If the file exists, Proqi asks before replacing it, with Cancel preselected. Cancel, Escape, and the close control all return to the path field. If the file changes while you decide, nothing is replaced. An existing symbolic link is never replaced; type the path it points to instead.
• Safety. The text is written to a temporary file in the same folder, synchronized to disk, and then moved into place, so the file is complete or absent. The Board changes only after that. Removing or replacing is one undo step; undo restores the thoughts and removes the reference, and the file stays. If a write fails, for example on a read-only folder or a full disk, the Board is left unchanged. If the Board cannot change after the file was saved, the message says why. New files follow your umask; replacing a file keeps its read, write, and execute permissions, as text editors do.

The same export is available from scripts with proqi thoughts export. The CLI resolves a relative --output from its own current directory.

Start, continue, and resume sessions

proqi                         # start a new session
proqi -c                      # continue the latest inactive session for this directory
proqi -r                      # open the searchable session browser
proqi -r <id-or-name>         # resume one exact session
proqi sessions list           # list resumable sessions
proqi sessions list -q text   # search names, paths, and thought content

A fresh launch starts a separate session so adjacent Proqi panes do not share a board accidentally. proqi -c prefers the latest inactive session associated with the current directory. Only one process may edit a given session at a time, while different sessions can remain open concurrently.

In the session browser, type to filter and use arrows or a mouse click to choose a resumable result. Active sessions remain visible but cannot be opened for concurrent editing. F2 renames and F8 trashes the focused live result, or restores a focused trashed result, only while the search query is empty. The same actions have pointer controls in the Browser footer. Browser Undo and Redo cover rename, trash, and restore across sessions.

Know what is recoverable

Operation	Recoverable?	Boundary
Edit, create, delete, cut, duplicate, move, rename, separator change	Yes	Persistent Editor or Board undo
Session rename, trash, restore	Yes	Persistent Browser undo
Accepted submit with local removal	Local removal only	Undo restores the source but cannot recall the delivery
Cross-session send and remove	Source removal only	Undo does not retract the destination copy
Export and remove, or replace with reference	The Board change only	Undo restores the thoughts; the exported file stays
Clipboard write	No external recall	Local cut removal is still undoable
Session prune	No	Requires a previously trashed session and --yes

Use Commands for contextual Undo and Redo without memorizing a chord. On macOS, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z, and Ctrl+Y are terminal-safe defaults. Board u and the conventional Primary aliases remain available when the terminal forwards them. See Undo and redo for every active owner.

Trash, restore, and prune safely

proqi sessions trash <id-or-name>
proqi sessions restore <id-or-name>
proqi sessions undo
proqi sessions redo
proqi sessions prune <id-or-name> --yes

Trash is recoverable. Restore returns the session. Prune is permanent and only accepts an already trashed session after the explicit confirmation flag. Review the exact target with proqi sessions list --all before pruning.

Recover from a storage failure

There is no save command. The footer distinguishes pending work from durable work. If storage fails, Proqi keeps the optimistic in-memory board visible and does not report it as saved.

The Recovery surface recognizes:

• r to retry the failed storage operation;
• w to write a private recovery export;
• q or Primary+Q to request exit through the same durability checks;
• Escape is a safe no-op while the unresolved failure remains visible.

Do not edit the database, delete lock files, or start a second writer to force recovery. If retry remains unavailable, export first and use the exact resume command and recovery path that Proqi reports. Recovery format 2 retains thought and separator identities, ordering, timestamps, and recoverable deletion state.

For a read-only health check that does not repair or mutate state:

proqi doctor

To create a local, content-redacted support bundle at a path you choose:

proqi diagnostics collect --output proqi-diagnostics.json

Proqi refuses to overwrite an existing bundle and never uploads it. Review the file before sharing it.

Normal exit prints the exact resume command. A crash or terminal closure leaves committed content resumable. On macOS and Linux, a confirmed input-reader stall may trigger one bounded same-pane replacement attempt for the exact session. If Proqi cannot prove safe replacement, it restores the terminal and exits with manual recovery instructions instead of looping or guessing.