Session lifecycle
What each session state means while an agent works, waits, finishes, or stops, and how to recover.
Every message you send starts a turn: the agent works until it finishes, needs you, or is stopped. The status line at the top of each turn shows its progress.
Turn states
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Working for 25s | The agent is running. A spinner and, when reported, a token count show next to it. |
| Waiting for input | The agent asked a question or needs approval. Answer it in the card ("Waiting for your answer") to continue. |
| Worked for 10s | The turn finished. The line also summarizes the work, for example Ran 2 commands, read 3 files and edited 2 files. Select it to expand every step. |
| Stopped after 12s | You stopped the turn. Work done until then is kept. |
| Stopped before it started | The turn was stopped or failed before the agent began. |
A turn in Plan mode ends with a Plan ready for review card. Accept Plan starts a new turn in Agent mode to build it, and the card then reads Plan accepted; Reject Plan marks it Plan rejected.
Sending while the agent works
You can keep typing while a turn runs. Each extra message shows its delivery state:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sending… | The message is on its way. |
| Sent to the running agent | The agent received it during the current turn. |
| Queued. Runs after the current turn | It starts the next turn automatically. |
| Runs next. The agent finished before reading it | The turn ended first, so the message starts a new one. |
| Not sent. The computer was stopped | The machine went offline. Start it again, then resend. |
Where the session runs
A session's turns run on its execution target, which has its own status in the side panel, for example Cloud machine · Ready or a computer that is Online. A cloud machine can be asleep: the transcript shows a placeholder with Wake up. Waking or restarting the machine doesn't change the session; its history stays.
The machine and the turn are separate. A machine that is offline means turns can't run; a turn that is Stopped means that turn ended. See Sandboxes for cloud machine states.
Recover and continue
- A turn stopped early: reply in the same session to continue from where it stopped.
- The machine is offline or asleep: choose Wake up, or start the computer, then resend any message marked Not sent.
- The work changed direction: start a new session so the transcript stays focused, or choose Convert to task in the session header to track it as a task.
- You need to see what happened: expand the Worked for line to inspect the reported steps. On a task, open Changes to review the working diff.
If a reply is missing, check the delivery label and expand the turn's steps before resending. The agent may already have received your message or changed files.