What
When you go back to an old, inactive conversation, Claude Code can show a quota warning offering to start a new conversation instead of resuming. Choosing that option now leaves Claude a way back to the earlier work:
- Claude Code runs
/clear, then shows the notice "New conversation. Claude can look up the previous conversation if you refer to it.", or a version naming the old conversation's title. If/cleardid not apply, this is logged. - Claude gets a reminder saying you started this conversation instead of resuming an earlier one. It gives the old session's ID and the path to its transcript file, and tells Claude to look up earlier work there rather than ask you to repeat it.
- The reminder can also include your last prompt and Claude's reply, escaped and wrapped in
<previous-conversation>tags.
The pointer is left out when:
- The policy
allow_previous_conversation_pointerdoes not allow it. This new policy is denied for HIPAA organizations, and also denied when the policy cannot be looked up. - The quota-warning config sets
newConversationPointerto false, or thetengu_amber_tallyobject does.
Why
Starting fresh to save quota no longer means losing the thread: Claude can read the earlier transcript when you refer to it. HIPAA organizations are opted out.