Sessions

abTARS supports multiple concurrent conversation sessions per platform. Each session is an isolated conversation context with its own message history.

Concepts

Transport session — an actual conversation context (message history sent to the model). Created by /session new, switched with /session <#>.

Storage session ID — a tag written to the memory database. Used by the sleep cycle to group and extract memories per session.

Session ID Format

{unixTimestamp}_{type}_{shortIndex}

Example: 1747563282_A_01

Code	Type
A	Main
B	Browse
C	Code
T	Task

Commands

All session commands are master-only.

Command	Description
/session	List all sessions
/session new	Create new Main session
/session new browse	Create Browse session
/session new code	Create Code session
/session new task	Create Task session
/session <#>	Switch to session by number
/session end [#]	End session (messages kept in memory)
/session kill <#>	Kill session and wipe its messages

Lifecycle

Manual sessions

Created with /session new [type]. Each gets its own conversation context with the appropriate system prompt (Main gets soul/greeting, Code/Browse/Task get their agent-specific prompts). Stay open until explicitly ended or killed.

Auto-spawned sessions

When the model invokes a tool (browse, task), a sub-session is automatically created. These:

• Run inline (no context switch — responses appear in the current conversation)
• Are visible in /session list
• Can be killed by the user
• Auto-end after inactivity timeout (AUTO_SESSION_TIMEOUT_MIN, default: 60 minutes)

End vs Kill

	/session end	/session kill
Messages in memory	Kept	Wiped
Extracted memories	Kept	Kept
Session removed	Yes	Yes

Rules

• At least one Main session must be active per platform at all times
• Killing the last Main auto-creates a fresh replacement
• /session end on the last Main resets it (clears history, creates new)
• Sessions are per-platform (Telegram and Discord have separate session lists)
• Bridge restart clears all sessions (fresh Main #1 on reconnect)
• Short index is monotonic per bridge lifetime (never reused)

Configuration

Env variable	Default	Description
MAX_SESSIONS	10	Hard cap on concurrent sessions per platform
AUTO_SESSION_TIMEOUT_MIN	60	Inactivity timeout for auto-spawned sessions (0 = end immediately)

Memory Integration

• Messages are tagged with the session ID in the memory database
• The sleep cycle (Dreamy) only extracts memories from Main (A) sessions
• Non-Main session messages are stored but not processed for memory extraction
• /session kill wipes raw messages but extracted memories survive