Getting back to a session
Every session has one action that takes you back to it, in the app it belongs to. Use it from the inspector, press ↵ on a selected session, double-click a session anywhere, or press ↵ on a result in ⌘K.
Claude Code: Go to terminal
Section titled “Claude Code: Go to terminal”For Claude Code there’s a single button, Go to terminal. When you click it, Hoku checks the session’s live state at that moment and picks one of these:
| The session is… | Hoku… |
|---|---|
| running in an iTerm or Terminal tab | switches to that tab, bringing its window to your current desktop if needed |
| running in VS Code‘s (or VS Code Insiders’) integrated terminal | with the optional Hoku extension for VS Code, brings that exact window forward and shows the session’s terminal. Without it, brings VS Code to the front and you pick the tab. See VS Code. |
running as a background session (claude --bg) |
switches to a tab already attached to it. Otherwise, if claude agents is open (in iTerm, Terminal or VS Code), it goes there so you can pick the session. Failing both, it runs claude attach <id> in a new tab. |
| not running | runs claude --resume <id> in the session’s folder, in a new tab of your frontmost iTerm window on this desktop |
It never starts a second copy of a session that’s already running. Two copies of one live session would conflict.
- Terminal instead of iTerm. Settings → Claude Code opens in chooses Automatic (iTerm if it’s installed), iTerm or Terminal. Terminal gets a new window rather than a tab, because Terminal can’t open tabs without Accessibility access, which Hoku doesn’t ask for.
- The first time, macOS asks whether Hoku may control iTerm or Terminal. Click Allow. macOS asks again after each Hoku update (see Install and update).
- Hover the button to see what will most likely happen, for example “Will switch to the terminal it’s running in”. The click re-checks live state, so the result can differ.
- Copy command in the inspector copies
claude --resume <id>if you’d rather run it yourself.
VS Code
Section titled “VS Code”VS Code doesn’t let other apps pick one of its windows or terminal tabs. The optional Hoku extension for VS Code, bundled with Hoku, closes that gap: each VS Code window tells Hoku which terminals it has (process numbers only), and Go to terminal asks the right window to show the session’s terminal and come forward.
- Hoku says Switched to this session’s terminal in VS Code only when that window confirms it. Otherwise it brings VS Code forward and says it couldn’t select the window and terminal, so you pick it there.
- The first time, VS Code asks Allow ‘Hoku’ extension to open this URI?. Choose Open and tick Do not ask me again.
- Remote windows (SSH, containers, WSL) and sessions in the Claude Code extension’s panel keep the old behaviour: VS Code comes forward and you pick the session. So does running two copies of VS Code at once. tmux inside VS Code is still a terminal Hoku can’t switch to, and forks such as Cursor aren’t recognized.
Install it from the setup sheet Hoku offers, or from Integrations. See VS Code extension.
When Hoku can’t switch there
Section titled “When Hoku can’t switch there”- Warp, tmux and other terminals. Hoku can’t switch to them. It tells you the session is already running in a terminal it can’t switch to, instead of starting a second copy. Go to it there.
- Another desktop (Space). If the session’s window is on another desktop and macOS is set not to follow apps between desktops, Hoku shows how to change that. Open System Settings → Desktop & Dock, and under Mission Control turn on When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application. It’s the macOS default, and Hoku doesn’t change it for you.
- The transcript is gone. Claude Code deletes old transcripts after a while. Such sessions stay in Hoku as Transcript no longer on disk, drawn hollow, and can’t be resumed.
Codex Desktop
Section titled “Codex Desktop”Open thread in Codex opens codex://threads/<id> in Codex Desktop. If Codex Desktop isn’t installed, Hoku copies the thread ID to your clipboard instead.
Claude Desktop
Section titled “Claude Desktop”- Cowork sessions: Open in Claude Cowork opens the session in Claude Desktop.
- Chats: Open conversation in Claude opens the chat in Claude Desktop. If Claude Desktop isn’t installed, the chat opens on claude.ai in your browser.
Demo sessions
Section titled “Demo sessions”Demo sessions aren’t connected to anything, so their button reads Demo session — not connected and does nothing.
Safety
Section titled “Safety”Session IDs, folders and links come from other apps’ files, so Hoku treats them as untrusted. IDs are checked against a strict pattern, folders must exist, paths are shell-quoted, and only known link types are opened: claude://, codex://, and https:// links to claude.ai or chatgpt.com.