Branch a conversation

A conversation fork creates another thread from an eligible completed engine session. It is useful when you want to explore an alternative without replacing the source thread’s history.

Create a branch

Inside the source Slack thread, send:

@ChannelGate /fork Explore an alternative using a queue-based import worker.

ChannelGate uses the selected engine’s native fork command, creates a new top-level Slack message linking to the source, posts the new request in that thread, and runs it with a distinct child session ID. The source thread receives a backlink.

The source retains its own session ID and history. Engine, model, effort, and thread Clean pins carry into the branch. Subsequent requests in either thread continue their respective sessions.

Meet the admission rules

The source must be a completed Claude or Codex container session. An active run must finish or be stopped before it is safe to fork. Direct-host /sudo sessions and source-host sessions are refused by this workflow. You must remain authorized in the conversation.

Forking is a Slack thread workflow; do not assume it is available on the Beta Teams or Google Chat surfaces.

Understand the shared workspace

A new session does not duplicate the project’s files, persistent memory, connected accounts, or container. Both threads still use the conversation workspace. If both branches will edit a Git repository, request separate Git worktrees and distinct branches for the two implementation paths.

Use a separate Git worktree for this experiment and leave the source
branch's uncommitted files untouched.

Starting a new blank thread provides a fresh history instead. Use session adoption when the history already exists in an eligible local CLI session.