ReferenceCLI commands
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ak sessions tail
Stream appended session messages
Follows one Claude Code session JSONL file and prints messages appended after tail starts.
Who it's for: AI agents, CI monitors, and developers that need a live CLI equivalent of the desktop Sessions stream.
When to use it: Use while Claude Code is actively writing to a session file. Use Ctrl-C or cancel the process to stop.
What changes on disk: Read-only. Tails the selected ~/.claude session JSONL file.
Usage
ak sessions tail <project> <session-id> [flags]Examples
ak sessions tail myapp session-abc
ak sessions tail myapp session-abc --jsonFlags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-h, --help | help for tail |
--json | Emit machine-readable JSON (implies --no-interactive) |
--no-interactive | Disable interactive prompts (CI-safe) |
-q, --quiet | Suppress non-error output on stderr |
-V, --verbose | Extra diagnostic output on stderr (loses to --quiet) |
-y, --yes | Assume yes for all prompts |
Output modes
| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
pretty | default on TTY (colors, ASCII markers) |
plain | auto when stdout piped or --no-interactive |
json | --json (single-object envelope, NDJSON-safe) |
Exit codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
0 | success |
1 | runtime error |
2 | invalid flags |
3 | user-cancel (SIGINT, prompt-cancel) |
Related commands
ak sessions— Inspect and maintain local coding-agent sessions