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How-to · Sessions

Start a session on a folder

Open a new session against a folder or a GitHub repository, picking its mode, engine and worktree.

You want a session running on a folder, and Turret has none open on it right now.

1. Press the sidebar's New control. The New Session screen opens over the window, on New session in the switch at its top left. Resume session is for picking up an earlier session instead — see Resume a session.
2. Pick a mode.
3. The switch below the mode cards decides what the next field asks for. Its label follows the mode: Working directory for Coding, Coding v2 and Assistant, Repository folder for CAD and Project folder for Game.
4. Leave the switch on Path to name a folder. Press a folder in the Recent list, or type or browse to a folder in the field.
5. Or press Repository and type a GitHub repository as owner/repo. The list under the field is every repository your GitHub account can reach; typing searches all of them.
6. A repository Turret already holds reads Opens with its folder. A repository Turret has never held reads Not cloned yet, and Create clones it before the session opens.
7. If Open on a new worktree appears below the field, tick it to give the session its own git worktree.
8. Pick an engine, a model and a thinking level.
9. Pick an output style, or leave the field on Follow settings to use the default.
10. Press Create.

Pressing Enter anywhere on the screen outside a button or a select does the same thing as pressing Create. Pressing Escape closes the screen without creating anything.

The screen opens on whichever target the last session created from it used. With nothing remembered it opens on Repository when the base folder is set, and on Path when it is not. See Set the base folder. Picking a folder from Recent moves the switch back to Path, because a folder is a path.

A repository being cloned shows git's progress under the field, with Cancel clone where Cancel sits. While it runs, Escape and the close control are refused, so nothing is left cloning with no screen naming it.

See Modes and Engines and their models for what each choice on this screen offers. See Open a session on a git worktree for the worktree option in more depth.