Thread history, rewind & fork

Use this guide to back a conversation up to an earlier point (rewind) or branch it into a new conversation (fork), without losing your work.

A thread is one continuous conversation with the agent; everything you save and learn in it sticks around. When a thread drifts off track, you can rewind to a checkpoint or fork from it.

History drawer showing a list of past AI Studio threads

1. Rewind

Rewind moves the thread back to an earlier checkpoint — a saved point in the conversation — and continues from there.

  1. Open the history for the thread (the history icon in the chat header, or past conversations in the left Workspace pane).
  2. Pick the checkpoint you want to return to.
  3. Resume — the agent continues from that point as if the later turns hadn't happened.

2. Fork

Fork creates a new thread that starts from a chosen checkpoint, leaving the original intact. Use it to explore an alternative approach without disturbing the main run.

  1. Open history and pick a checkpoint.
  2. Choose Fork at this point.
  3. A new thread is created from that checkpoint; work in it freely — the original is unchanged.

Your place is remembered:

The most recent thread you opened is persisted per user and workspace, so reopening AI Studio returns you to where you left off.

3. When to use which

  • Rewind — “that last part was a mistake; start over from here.”
  • Fork — “this could go two ways; try the other one without touching the main thread.”