Session Management

Chat Gipitty provides powerful session management capabilities that allow for continuous conversations across multiple interactions. Sessions persist context between commands, enabling more natural and contextual conversations.

How Sessions Work

Sessions store the conversation history (both user messages and assistant responses) and reuse this context in subsequent interactions. This allows the model to:

Remember previous questions and answers
Build upon earlier context
Maintain conversation flow across commands
Provide more coherent and contextually aware responses

Enabling Sessions

Sessions are controlled by the CGIP_SESSION_NAME environment variable. Without this variable, Chat Gipitty operates in stateless mode.

# Enable sessions with a unique session ID
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuidgen)

# Or use any custom session name
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="my-coding-session"

Session Naming Strategies

The uniqueness and persistence of your session depends on how you set the CGIP_SESSION_NAME variable:

Terminal-Specific Sessions

Each new terminal gets its own session:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(uuidgen)

Daily Sessions

Same session for the entire day:

export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date -I)  # 2024-01-15

Weekly Sessions

Sessions that persist for a week:

export CGIP_SESSION_NAME=$(date +%Y-W%U)  # 2024-W03

Project-Based Sessions

Different sessions for different projects:

# Use current directory name
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="project-$(basename $PWD)"

# Use git repository name if in a git repo
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="git-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel | xargs basename 2>/dev/null || echo 'no-git')"

Custom Session Names

Manually managed sessions:

export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="debugging-api-issue"
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="code-review-session"
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="learning-rust"

Session Workflow Examples

Continuous Development Session

# First interaction
cgip "I'm working on a Rust web API project"

# Later, without needing to re-explain context
cgip "How should I structure the authentication middleware?"

# Even later
cgip "Can you help me write tests for the authentication we discussed?"

Debugging Session

# Start debugging session
cargo build 2>&1 | cgip "This build is failing, what's wrong?"

# Continue debugging with context
cgip "How can I fix the lifetime issues you mentioned?"

# Test the fix
cargo build 2>&1 | cgip "Is this error related to our previous discussion?"

Learning Session

# Initial question
cgip "I'm learning about async programming in Rust"

# Follow-up questions maintain context
cgip "Can you give me a practical example?"

# Build on previous examples
cgip "How would I modify that example to handle errors?"

Session Management Commands

The session subcommand provides tools for managing your current session:

View Session Context

cgip session --view

Shows all messages in the current session, allowing you to see what context will be included in future queries.

Clear Session

cgip session --clear

Removes all stored context from the current session, starting fresh while keeping the same session name.

Session Best Practices

1. Choose Appropriate Session Scope

Terminal sessions (uuidgen): Best for isolated work sessions
Daily sessions (date -I): Good for ongoing projects
Project sessions: Best for long-term project work

2. Clear Sessions When Needed

Clear sessions when:

Context becomes too long and irrelevant
Switching to a completely different topic
The model becomes confused by accumulated context
Working with sensitive information

cgip session --clear

3. Use Session-Aware Queries

Take advantage of session context:

# Instead of repeating context
cgip "In the React project I mentioned earlier, how should I..."

# You can simply say
cgip "How should I implement user authentication in this project?"

4. Bypass Sessions When Needed

Use the --no-session flag for one-off queries:

# Quick lookup that doesn't need session context
cgip -n "What's the syntax for Python list comprehensions?"

# Sensitive query that shouldn't be stored
sensitive_command | cgip -n "analyze this output"

Session Storage

Sessions are stored locally on your system in the Chat Gipitty configuration directory. The exact location depends on your operating system:

Linux: ~/.config/cgip/sessions/
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/cgip/sessions/
Windows: %APPDATA%\cgip\sessions\

Each session is stored as a separate file named after your CGIP_SESSION_NAME.

Privacy and Security

Session Privacy

Sessions are stored locally and never sent to external servers
Only the session content (messages) is sent to the API, not metadata
Session files are readable only by your user account

Managing Sensitive Sessions

For sensitive work:

# Use temporary session names
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="temp-$(date +%s)"

# Clear after sensitive work
cgip session --clear

# Or use no-session mode
cgip -n "sensitive query"

Advanced Session Patterns

Conditional Session Management

# Different session strategies based on directory
if [[ "$PWD" == *"work"* ]]; then
    export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="work-$(date -I)"
else
    export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="personal-$(date -I)"
fi

Session Inheritance

# Base session for project
export CGIP_BASE_SESSION="project-myapp"

# Feature-specific sessions that inherit context
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="${CGIP_BASE_SESSION}-auth"
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="${CGIP_BASE_SESSION}-frontend"

Multi-User Environments

# Include username in session names
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="$(whoami)-$(date -I)"

# Or use more specific naming
export CGIP_SESSION_NAME="$(whoami)-$(basename $PWD)-$(date +%Y%m%d)"

Troubleshooting Sessions

Session Not Working

If sessions aren't working:

Check if CGIP_SESSION_NAME is set:
```
echo $CGIP_SESSION_NAME
```

Verify session storage permissions:

ls -la ~/.config/cgip/sessions/  # Linux
ls -la ~/Library/Application\ Support/cgip/sessions/  # macOS

Clear and restart session:
```
cgip session --clear
```

Session Too Long

If sessions become too long and unwieldy:

Clear the session: cgip session --clear
Use more specific session names for different topics
Use --no-session for unrelated queries

Context Confusion

If the model seems confused by session context:

View the session: cgip session --view
Clear irrelevant context: cgip session --clear
Start a new session with a different name

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