Start and manage sessions

A session is one conversation with an agent, working in one project's folder. You can run many at once, each in its own project or several in the same one.

Start a session#

1. 1

   Click a project in the projects column.

2. 2

   Click + (New session) at the top of its sessions list, or press Command plus T⌘TCtrl plus TCtrlT.

3. 3

   Type what you want the agent to do and press EnterEnterEnterEnter.

The session starts with the project's default AI engine and model. To use another for this one session, pick it in the new session before your first message; see Choose your AI engine.

If the project already has an empty session, Yardmaster reuses it instead of making another one.

Read a session's status#

Each session in the list has a colored dot and a status. The ones you see most:

• Running (green): the agent is working.

• Needs You (amber): the agent has a question, wants permission, or wants you to approve a plan. These also land in your Inbox.

• Rate Limited (orange): you reached a usage limit. The session carries on by itself when an account has room again, so there is nothing to do.

• Ready: the session is waiting for your first message.

• Paused: you paused it. Press PPPP to carry on.

• Stopped (red): you stopped it. Send a message to carry on.

• Error (red): something went wrong. Send a message to try again.

• Interrupted: the agent stopped before it finished, for example because the app closed. Send a message to pick it up again.

• Stalled?: no output for a while, so it may be stuck.

Hover a dot to read what it means. The list groups sessions into sections such as Needs You, Pinned, Live Sessions, Snoozed, Saved and Archived.

Pause, stop, snooze or archive#

Right-click a session in the list to act on it:

• Pause stops the agent for now. Unpause carries on where it left off.

• Stop ends the agent's current work. Restart starts it again where it left off.

• Snooze hides the session until the time you type, like 2h or tomorrow 9am, then brings it back.

• Save keeps it in your Saved section so it is easy to find later.

• Pin keeps it at the top of the list.

• Move to moves it into another project.

• Archive tidies it out of your list. Open the Archived section to find it, and right-click it and choose Unarchive to bring it back.

The same actions are in the session's own menu (the three dots above the conversation). Keys work on the open session: PPPP pauses, HHHH snoozes, BBBB saves and Command plus W⌘WCtrl plus WCtrlW archives.

To act on several sessions at once, hold Shift and click to select them, then right-click one of them.

Save or share a conversation#

Open the session's menu (the three dots) and choose Exports:

• Copy as Markdown copies the whole conversation as text.

• Export to Markdown and Export to PDF save it as a file.

• Share makes a read-only link to the conversation. See Session Sharing.

Export to Word and Export to Google Docs appear there once you turn them on.

An export holds your messages and the agent's replies. The step-by-step tool activity is left out.

Try a guided mission#

On Windows and Mac, a project with no session open shows Run a guided mission under New Session. A mission is a short, coached task that runs in a session with buttons for each step, such as Tidy my computer, Start my first project, Teach Yardmaster about me or Set up my daily briefing.

Find Ways to Integrate AI Into Your Work and Life is a short interview about your goals. With Claude, or an engine that works like Claude (DeepSeek or Kimi), its opening question is already written, so no model runs until you answer it. Other engines start the interview themselves, on the account you picked for that engine.

Long sessions#

A very long session costs more with every reply, because each reply re-reads the whole conversation. Yardmaster warns you and can continue in a fresh session for you: see Keep long sessions affordable.