Fork & Timeline

spwn gives you two ways to move through a session’s history: Fork to branch into a new session, and the Timeline to return the current one to an earlier point.

Fork

⑂ Fork branches a session into a new one, opened in its own tab and shown nested under the original in the sidebar so you can see where it came from.

Use Fork when you want to try a different direction without abandoning the conversation you have — both sessions continue to exist and run independently. It’s ideal for “what if we tried it this other way?” moments: branch, explore, and keep whichever result you like.

In a git project, the fork also gets its own git branch, created from the parent session’s branch — so its files start where the parent left off and then diverge. See Branches & Merging.

Timeline

The Timeline (a tab in a session’s Inspector) is where you return a session to an earlier point. spwn captures a checkpoint — a copy-on-write snapshot of the session’s files — after each turn, so the Timeline can take you back precisely.

Use the ↺ Return here action on a turn, then choose what to roll back:

• the conversation only,
• the files only, or
• both.

Use the Timeline when a session has gone down an unproductive path and you’d rather back up and retry than start over.

How they differ

	Fork	Timeline (Return here)
Effect	Creates a new session branched from a point	Rolls the current session back
Original session	Kept, runs in parallel	Rolled back in place
Scope	Conversation + branched code	Conversation, files, or both
Use it when	You want to explore an alternative and keep both	You want to back up and retry

Next

• Sessions & Shells
• Branches & Merging