Claude Code stops for many reasons: usage limits, transport blips, user walk-away, or a “should I continue?” pause. Power Claude’s Auto-Resume / Auto-Rewake family is how you decide which of those stops are temporary — and which stay human-gated.
TL;DR
| Control | Default intent |
|---|---|
| Resume after recoverable stops | Available; tune eagerness |
| Cross-window resume | OFF (safer) |
| Cross-environment resume | OFF (safer) |
| Kill switch | ~/.power-claude/state/emergency-off |
| Companion | Auto-Nudge for trivial stop text; Watchdog for dead tabs |
Two related ideas
- Auto-Resume — bring a stopped session back into a live Claude Code tab with a wake prompt.
- Auto-Rewake — schedule / hook-driven wake after rate-limit or capacity style stops, with per-type user extras and stuck guards.
Neither invents Anthropic capacity. They continue your work when your seats and local state allow.
Safe defaults (read this)
Power Claude defaults to not yanking sessions across windows or machines:
powerClaude.autoResume.crossWindow→ falsepowerClaude.autoResume.crossEnvironment→ false
That prevents surprising tab steals when you have multiple VS Code windows or remote hosts.
How to configure
- Command Palette → Power Claude: Open Settings (or search
autoResume/autoRewake). - Decide scope:
- Same window only (recommended start). - Cross-window only if you understand tab ownership.
- Set wake prompt:
powerClaude.resumePrompt(default continues from where you left off). - Optional: per-type
autoRewake.userExtrasfor capacity vs weekly vs server-error wakes. - Confirm Auto-Nudge policy separately — it handles “trivial stop” text, not full rewake scheduling.
When it shines
- Long jobs that hit a 5h / weekly pause and should continue when headroom returns.
- Overnight loops with Objective Mode + nudge (see Auto-Nudge guide).
- Teams that snapshot sessions and resume after reloads (
autoSnapshotSessions).
When to keep hands on the wheel
- Shared machines / multi-user hosts.
- Experiments where silent resume could re-run destructive tools (pair with permission policy).
- Any time the emergency kill switch is intentional.
Pair with
| Feature | Role |
|---|---|
| Auto-Nudge | Trivial conversational stops |
| Watchdog / recovery | Crashed / zombie UI |
| Resume stalled | Many abandoned sessions → worktrees |
| Warm Compacting | Context wall stalls (different problem) |
FAQ
Is this “bypass rate limits”?
No. On usage limits, the honest path is wait, change plan, or use Claude Code’s own options. Rewake continues when it is legitimate to continue.
Why didn’t my session resume?
Check: kill switch file, cross-window off, wrong environment, stuck-threshold, or the stop wasn’t classified as recoverable.
Can it resume someone else’s window?
Not with defaults. Only enable cross-window if you accept that behavior.
Related
Primary sources
- Power Claude settings:
autoResume,autoRewake - Video:
media/video/scenes/auto-rewake/ - Feature docs:
docs/features/auto/in the extension repo
Independent third-party software by Neural-LLM. Not affiliated with Anthropic.