Changelog

What's new in cctabs. Source of truth lives in CHANGELOG.md on GitHub.

Install or update:

# Claude Code plugin (recommended)
/plugin install cctabs@generativereality

# Or as a standalone CLI
npm i -g @generativereality/cctabs

0.4.0 — 2026-05-16

cctabs export + cctabs import — move tabs and their Claude sessions between machines. cctabs export <tab> (or --all for the whole workspace) bundles each tab's Claude conversation jsonl plus a small manifest into a .tar.gz. On the other machine, cctabs import <archive> extracts the jsonls into the local ~/.claude/projects/<target-slug>/ and opens a tab that claude --resumes each session. The target's Claude project slug is recomputed from the resolved target cwd, so cross-machine $HOME differences just work. Worktree-backed tabs (cctabs new --worktree) are handled correctly — export falls back to scanning <cwd>/.claude/worktrees/* when the direct slug lookup misses, and records the actual worktree path in the manifest so import recreates the right slug on the target.
--cwd <path> on import remaps a single-tab archive to a different directory. --dry-run previews everything without copying files or spawning tabs. --force overwrites a session jsonl that's already present locally.
Uses the system tar binary — no new npm deps.
Note: jsonl contents are not rewritten on import. Absolute paths from the source machine remain in the conversation history as historical references; Claude adapts to the actual current cwd on resume.

Fix: cctabs with no arguments crashed. The default command (which dispatches to sessions) was passing a fake context shaped like { args: {} } to sessionsCommand.run, but sessions --json (added in 0.3.1) reads ctx.values.json, so the missing values key threw Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'json'). Regression from 0.3.1.

Tabby: active-session detection now survives viewport padding and spinner redraws. Previously, Tabby tabs in the middle of a long Claude turn were misreported as terminal / unknown because the scrollback window only sampled the last 10 rows — Claude's animated status line lives further up. The detector now scans a 200-line tail and matches against spinner labels (Thinking, Composing, Worked for…, etc.) and Claude's brand glyphs.
cctabs new --resume <name> to open a tab and resume a named session in one step.
Manifest-driven restore. Each tab writes a manifest under ~/.cctabs/, so cctabs restore can reopen every tab and resume every Claude session after a reboot — no need to remember names.
cctabs send --wait-for-prompt waits until the tab is at a Claude prompt before delivering input, instead of racing the previous turn.
cctabs sessions --json for scripting.
Skill: sharper triggers. The Claude Code skill now lists explicit trigger phrases ("open a new tab", "in another tab", "fork this tab"…) and disambiguates "tab" from the Agent tool, so Claude stops spawning background subagents when you asked for a real terminal tab.

Folded into 0.3.1 — not tagged separately.

Tabby Terminal support. cctabs now works on Tabby in addition to Wave. Install the companion plugin (tabby-cctabs on npm; available from Tabby → Settings → Plugins) and run the CLI normally — the backend is auto-detected.
cctabs doctor prints a diagnostic of the current backend, the running plugin, and known orphaned tab-ids — useful when Wave or Tabby state drifts out of sync.
cctabs new --backend <name> for Ollama, Kimi, Qwen, and local-model presets. Spawns Claude Code wired to the chosen backend without per-tab env juggling.

cctabs restore searches every Claude project directory by default instead of only the current working directory. Restore now just works after a reboot regardless of which terminal/cwd you start it from.
Survive Wave restart with ephemeral workspace. Resume keeps working across Wave restarts; the workspace state no longer becomes stale.
--session accepts prefixes, so you can resume by partial name.

Prefer exact tab-name match over prefix match in tab resolution. Stops cctabs send api from accidentally hitting api-v2.
Recreate dead tabs on resume + handle spaces in project paths.
Bump wsh blocks list timeout so cctabs new no longer flakes on large Wave sessions.
Skill: parallel-work guidance + worktree decision guide.

Initial public release: cctabs new, fork, close, send, sessions, scrollback, restore for Wave Terminal.
Claude Code skill (cctabs) lets Claude orchestrate its own sibling sessions.