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Your First Session

A step-by-step guide to running your first IST session.

Prerequisites​

Make sure IST Minimal is installed:

ilogsession --version
imessenger --version
isesh --version

If not installed, see Installation.

Step 1: Choose Your Project​

Navigate to your project directory:

cd /path/to/my-project

Step 2: Start the Session​

ilogsession start my-first-session -w .

This starts a session with:

  • Name: my-first-session
  • Working directory: current folder
  • Automatic logging enabled

Step 3: Work With the AI​

In Claude Code, everything is now logged. The AI will work on your project while all interactions are saved.

Example Interaction​

You: Add input validation to the signup form

AI: I'll add input validation to the signup form.

Step 1: Add email format validation
[makes change]

Step 2: Add password strength check
[makes change]

Step 3: Add error message display
[makes change]

Done!

Step 4: Check Your Progress​

View the session logs in another terminal:

# Real-time log viewing
ilogsession tail my-first-session

# View recent history
ilogsession logs my-first-session

This shows:

  • All AI interactions
  • Commands executed
  • Tools used
  • Time spent

Step 5: Stop When Done​

Stop the session:

ilogsession stop my-first-session

Or simply close the terminal window.

What Happened?​

During your session:

  1. Logging: Every interaction was logged to ~/.ist/logs/my-first-session/
  2. Persistence: Logs are saved even if the session crashes or restarts
  3. Viewable: You can review everything later with ilogsession logs

Next Steps​

Troubleshooting​

Session won't start​

# Check if another session is running
ilogsession list

# Check for tmux issues
tmux list-sessions

Logs not appearing​

# Check session status
ilogsession list

# Ensure logging directory exists
ls ~/.ist/logs/