What
--resume continues an earlier session, given a session ID or the path to its transcript file. When loading fails with one particular kind of error, Claude Code now shows that error's own message. Before, it always showed a generic message such as "Unable to load transcript" or "Failed to resume session".
Resume also runs an extra check before the loaded session is used.
Why
You get a clearer reason when a session cannot be resumed.
Names in the bundle--resume
The entry above is what we published on the day. These lines were added later, as Anthropic's own pages caught up, and they sit beside the original rather than replacing it.
Confirmed since
Anthropic's documentation has since written up --resume, on Claude Code changelog.
* Fixed `claude --help` text for `--tools`, `--resume`, `--debug`, `--json-schema`, `--disable-slash-commands`, `--system-prompt-snapshot` and `claude update` to match actual behaviorchangelog see the edit
Added since
A small documentation edit on Manage sessions touched a line naming --resume after this was published.
* Default display name: interactive sessions you never name still get a default display name when they start. The default combines the working directory's name with a two-character suffix, for example `my-app-3f`, and identifies the sessio…sessions see the edit
One source agreesOne thing we can check says the same as this entry.
Anthropic's documentation agrees
A small documentation edit on Manage sessions touched a line naming --resume after this was published.