Start a stopped session's process for a command too

Same reasoning as the message path a commit ago, and the same objection
to leaving it out: a command is something somebody asked the session to
do, and answering "its process has exited" hands back the work of
starting one. `/compact` on a stopped session is the case that shows it
-- what is being asked for is exactly what a stopped session needs
before it is useful again.

`POST /sessions/{id}/command` and `/compact` now go through
`SessionManager::run_command`. A rename is deliberately not one of them:
it is persisted and listed whether or not a process ever hears about it,
so starting a CLI to tell it a name would be spending a resume on
nothing. It stays a forward to a process that happens to be there.

A command needs one thing a message did not. `Commands::submit` refuses
on `Exited`, and a driver that has just started a process announces
`Idle` through the sink rather than writing it -- so a command judged
against the session's own status would be refused by the word the start
had just replaced, in a window narrow enough that only a test reliably
hits it. `start_if_exited` returning `Exited` is what says a process was
started, so the status the command is judged against comes from there
rather than from a re-read the pump may not have caught up with. The
test fails without it.

`LiveSession::compact` went with this: `/compact` the route and
"/compact" the typed command were two ways to the same command, and now
there is one.

Verified over the API against a stand-in CLI: with the session reporting
`exited`, both `/clear` and `POST /compact` started the process and were
delivered -- transcript order `idle`, `commandSent`, `running`, `idle`,
with no "this session's process has exited" anywhere.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

AGENTS.md

@@ -291,12 +291,15 @@ day:
   which keeps the session and its transcript, and `POST .../start` brings
   the process back on the same conversation — or delete the session, which
   ends the conversation too.
-- **Sending a message to a stopped session starts it.** `POST
+- **A message or a command sent to a stopped session starts it.** `POST
-  .../message` goes through `SessionManager::send_message`, which starts a
+  .../message`, `.../command` and `.../compact` go through
-  process first when the session is known to have exited and then delivers
+  `SessionManager::send_message` and `::run_command`, which start a process
-  the message to the driver that has one behind it. Only on `exited`:
+  first when the session is known to have exited and then hand the thing to
-  `unknown` has a process that may well be reading its fifo. So the Start
+  the driver that has one behind it. Only on `exited`: `unknown` has a
-  button is for when you want a process and nothing to say to it yet.
+  process that may well be reading its fifo. `/rename` is the exception —
+  the name is persisted and listed either way, so it is forwarded to a
+  process that happens to be there and never starts one. So the Start button
+  is for when you want a process and nothing to say to it yet.
 - **Each session directory now holds `process.json`, `stdin.fifo`,
   `stdout.log` and `stderr.log`.** `stdout.log` is the driver's input, read
   from the byte offset in `process.json`; removing either by hand while the

PLAN.md

@@ -375,19 +375,30 @@ Two rules come out of it, and neither is optional:
   existed for the backend going away — and it is the whole of what a driver
   whose process has exited is owed.
 
-**Sending a message starts the process if there isn't one** (decided
+**A message or a command starts the process if there isn't one** (decided
 2026-08-30). Refusing was work handed back: read the status word, find the
-other button, press it, type the message again. Sending plainly means "do
+other button, press it, type the thing again. Both plainly mean "do this
-this now", and `--resume` puts the new process on the same conversation, so
+now", and `--resume` puts the new process on the same conversation, so
-nothing about the message changes — only whether there was anything there to
+nothing about what was typed changes — only whether there was anything there
-read it. The manager's `send_message` and the Start button ask one function
+to read it. A rename is deliberately not one of them: it is persisted and
+listed whether or not a process ever hears about it, so starting a CLI to
+tell it a name would be spending a resume on nothing. The manager's
+`send_message` and `run_command` and the Start button ask one function
 (`start_if_exited`) and want opposite answers from it: "there is already a
 process" is a refusal worth showing to somebody who pressed Start, and
 nothing at all to a message. Deciding it in one place under one write lock is
 also what stops two requests arriving together from starting two CLIs. Only
 `Exited` starts anything, for the reason above — `Unknown` has a process that
-may well be reading its fifo, and the message goes to the driver as it always
+may well be reading its fifo, and what was typed goes to the driver as it
-did.
+always did.
+
+A command needs one thing a message does not. `Commands::submit` refuses on
+`Exited`, and a driver that has just started a process announces `Idle`
+through the sink rather than writing it — so a command judged against the
+session's own status would be refused by the word the start had just
+replaced. `start_if_exited` returning `Exited` is what says a process was
+started, so `run_command` judges against `Idle` from there rather than
+re-reading a status the pump may not have caught up with.
 
 The phone's half is that the process button is disabled while its own request
 is in flight, so a second press cannot be decided against a status the first

server/src/routes.rs

@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 //! POST   /sessions/{id}/title          {title}
 //! POST   /sessions/{id}/model          {model}
 //! POST   /sessions/{id}/command        {text}  -- /compact, /clear, /rename x, or the dialect's own
+//!                                     (starts the process first if it has exited)
 //! POST   /sessions/{id}/compact
 //! POST   /sessions/{id}/attachments    multipart image upload -> {id}, referenced by /message
 //! GET    /sessions/{id}/files/{name}   images the session produced or was sent
@@ -840,15 +841,22 @@ async fn command(
         Some((name, rest)) => (name, rest.trim()),
         None => (text, ""),
     };
-    match (name, rest) {
+    // Everything but a rename goes through the manager, which starts the
-        ("/compact", _) => lookup(&manager, &id)?.run_command(SessionCommand::Compact),
+    // session's process first if it has exited. A rename is persisted and
-        ("/clear", _) => lookup(&manager, &id)?.run_command(SessionCommand::Clear),
+    // listed whether or not a process hears about it, so it neither needs
-        // Through the manager, not the session: a name is persisted and
+    // one nor is worth starting one for.
-        // listed as well as forwarded, and that is one operation.
+    let command = match (name, rest) {
+        ("/compact", _) => SessionCommand::Compact,
+        ("/clear", _) => SessionCommand::Clear,
         ("/rename", "") => return Err(bad_request(anyhow::anyhow!("a session needs a name"))),
-        ("/rename", title) => manager.rename_session(&id, title).map_err(bad_request)?,
+        ("/rename", title) => {
-        _ => lookup(&manager, &id)?.run_command(SessionCommand::Raw(text.to_string())),
+            manager.rename_session(&id, title).map_err(bad_request)?;
+            return Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT);
         }
+        _ => SessionCommand::Raw(text.to_string()),
+    };
+    lookup(&manager, &id)?;
+    manager.run_command(&id, command).map_err(bad_request)?;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 
@@ -856,7 +864,10 @@ async fn compact(
     State(manager): State<Arc<SessionManager>>,
     UrlPath(id): UrlPath<String>,
 ) -> Result<StatusCode, ApiError> {
-    lookup(&manager, &id)?.compact();
+    lookup(&manager, &id)?;
+    manager
+        .run_command(&id, SessionCommand::Compact)
+        .map_err(bad_request)?;
     Ok(StatusCode::NO_CONTENT)
 }
 

server/src/session/mod.rs

@@ -399,13 +399,6 @@ impl LiveSession {
         self.driver().detach();
     }
 
-    /// Compacts at the next boundary. Through the command queue like
-    /// every other instruction to the session, so pressing it during a
-    /// turn holds rather than writing into that turn.
-    pub fn compact(&self) {
-        self.run_command(SessionCommand::Compact);
-    }
-
     pub fn subscribe(&self) -> broadcast::Receiver<SeqEvent> {
         self.events.subscribe()
     }
@@ -1150,6 +1143,42 @@ impl SessionManager {
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    /// Runs one of the session's own commands, starting its process first
+    /// if that session has none.
+    ///
+    /// The same reasoning as [`SessionManager::send_message`], and for the
+    /// same reason it is not left to each caller: a command is something
+    /// somebody asked the session to do, and answering "its process has
+    /// exited" hands back the work of starting one. `/compact` on a
+    /// stopped session is the case that shows it -- the thing being asked
+    /// for is exactly what a stopped session needs before it is useful
+    /// again.
+    ///
+    /// Renaming is deliberately not here. It is persisted and listed
+    /// whether or not a process ever hears about it, so starting a CLI to
+    /// tell it a name would be spending a resume on nothing -- see
+    /// [`SessionManager::rename_session`], which forwards it to a process
+    /// that happens to be there.
+    pub fn run_command(&self, id: &str, command: SessionCommand) -> Result<()> {
+        // Judged against the status *after* the start, not the one that
+        // caused it. A driver that has just started a process announces
+        // `idle` through the sink and the pump may not have recorded it
+        // yet, so reading the session's own status here would refuse the
+        // command the start was for -- `Commands::submit` refuses on
+        // `Exited`, which is exactly the word that has just stopped being
+        // true. `start_if_exited` returning `Exited` is what says a process
+        // was started; anything else is a status nothing has invalidated.
+        let status = match self.start_if_exited(id)? {
+            SessionStatus::Exited => SessionStatus::Idle,
+            found => found,
+        };
+        self.session(id)
+            .with_context(|| format!("no session {id}"))?
+            .commands
+            .submit(command, status);
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     /// Starts a process for the session if it is known to have exited, and
     /// reports what the session was found to be doing either way. `Exited`
     /// is therefore the one returned value that means something was started.
@@ -2612,16 +2641,22 @@ mod tests {
         ));
     }
 
-    /// Sending is an instruction that means "now", so it does not answer
+    /// A message and a command both mean "now", so neither answers that the
-    /// that the session's process has gone -- it starts one and delivers
+    /// session's process has gone -- they start one and go to it.
-    /// the message to it.
     ///
     /// Refusing was the old behaviour and it was work handed back: read the
-    /// status word, find the other button, press it, type the message
+    /// status word, find the other button, press it, type the thing again.
-    /// again. `--resume` puts the new process on the same conversation, so
+    /// `--resume` puts the new process on the same conversation, so what it
-    /// the message it reads is the one that was typed.
+    /// reads is what was typed.
+    ///
+    /// Both halves in one test because they are one rule. A command is the
+    /// half that can fail on its own: `Commands::submit` refuses on
+    /// `Exited`, and the start it has just been given announces `Idle`
+    /// through the sink rather than writing it -- so a command judged
+    /// against the session's own status would be refused by the word the
+    /// start replaced, in a window a test is the only thing likely to hit.
     #[tokio::test]
-    async fn a_message_starts_the_process_a_stopped_session_has_not_got() {
+    async fn an_instruction_starts_the_process_a_stopped_session_has_not_got() {
         let dir = tempfile::tempdir().expect("tempdir");
         let config_path = dir.path().join("config.ron");
         let data_dir = dir.path().join("sessions");
@@ -2657,6 +2692,25 @@ mod tests {
         // delivered to a session still reporting `exited` is one the phone
         // draws under a Start button.
         assert_ne!(manager.sessions()[0].status, SessionStatus::Exited);
+
+        let _ = session.sink.send(Event::Status {
+            state: SessionStatus::Exited,
+        });
+        collect_until(&mut rx, |event| {
+            matches!(
+                event,
+                Event::Status {
+                    state: SessionStatus::Exited
+                }
+            )
+        })
+        .await;
+
+        manager
+            .run_command(&info.id, SessionCommand::Clear)
+            .expect("clear a stopped session");
+        collect_until(&mut rx, |event| matches!(event, Event::Cleared)).await;
+        assert_ne!(manager.sessions()[0].status, SessionStatus::Exited);
     }
 
     /// The status is a claim about a process, and the process record is