Module 6 · Lesson 212 min

The session manager and resurrection

The session manager is a built-in plugin that gives you a visual switcher: browse active sessions, resurrect dead ones, start new ones, rename the current one, and kill sessions, all from one floating panel. It's the fastest way to move between sessions once you have more than one.

Session mode plugins

`Ctrl`then`o`	Enter Session mode
`w`	Open the session manager (floating)
`c`	Open the configuration plugin
`p`	Open the plugin manager
`a`	Open the about plugin

Resurrection is why a Zellij session feels immortal. About once a second, Zellij serialises each session, its tabs, panes, and the command running in each pane, to a layout file in your cache folder. If the session exits (a clean quit, a crash, a reboot), that layout is kept. zellij ls shows exited sessions as resurrectable, and attaching to one rebuilds it and re-runs the commands.

Practice

Try it yourself

Switch with the session manager

Use the visual switcher to move between sessions.

Make sure you have at least two sessions (start a second: detach, then zellij --session scratch)
Press Ctrl o then w to open the session manager
Select another session and switch to it
Open it again and try renaming the current session from the panel

Tick every step to confirm you did it.

Resurrect a dead session

Kill a session and bring it back to prove resurrection works.

In a throwaway session, run a long-lived command in a pane, like top
Detach, then kill it: zellij kill-session <name>
Run zellij ls and find it listed as exited/resurrectable
Run zellij attach <name> and watch the layout and command come back

Tick every step to confirm you did it.